Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Up 3.4% – Still a Buy?

Posted by Brian Himes on Jul 16th, 2026

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report) rose 3.4% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $174.54 and last traded at $172.5970. 11,169,209 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 20% from the average session volume of 13,891,070 shares. The stock had previously closed at $167.00.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an “overweight” rating for the company. Wedbush began coverage on Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Scotiabank lowered Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. HSBC increased their target price on Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $254.42.

Check Out Our Latest Report on Salesforce

Salesforce Stock Up 3.4%

The stock has a market capitalization of $141.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.18. The business’s 50-day moving average is $171.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $191.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. Salesforce’s revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.58 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were given a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 20.37%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Salesforce by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,800,353,000 after buying an additional 270,913 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,286,909,000 after acquiring an additional 659,573 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $12,552,896,000 after acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $6,019,199,000 after acquiring an additional 2,669,891 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,751,073,000 after purchasing an additional 791,345 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

About Salesforce

(Get Free Report)

Salesforce, founded in 1999 and headquartered in San Francisco, is a global provider of cloud-based software focused on customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise applications. The company popularized the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model for CRM and has built a broad portfolio of products designed to help organizations manage sales, service, marketing, commerce and analytics through a unified, cloud-first platform.

Core offerings include Sales Cloud for sales automation, Service Cloud for customer support, Marketing Cloud for digital marketing and engagement, and Commerce Cloud for e-commerce.