Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report)’s share price was down 3.8% during mid-day trading on Friday. The stock traded as low as $211.00 and last traded at $213.9580. 6,639,728 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 49% from the average session volume of 13,090,609 shares. The stock had previously closed at $222.41.
Salesforce News Summary
Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s planned acquisition of AI voice-agent company Cresta could strengthen Agentforce and Service Cloud, adding capabilities for customer-service automation. The deal also brings acquisition costs and execution risks. Article: Salesforce Bets on AI Voice Agents With Planned Cresta Acquisition
- Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research upgraded Salesforce from “hold” to “strong buy,” a favorable analyst signal that may help counter near-term concerns. Article: Zacks Research rating
- Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce is expanding its Coworker offering and promoting a 21-times growth claim, but the report notes that no baseline is provided, making the figure difficult to assess. Article: Salesforce Expands Coworker’s Reach, but Its 21× Growth Claim Has No Baseline
- Neutral Sentiment: The company is extending Agent Fabric to help businesses manage AI agents across platforms. Its large customer base and reported 1.2 billion daily requests suggest potential, but investors still need evidence that the AI activity will translate into meaningful revenue. Article: Salesforce Stock: The 1 Number Investors Still Need to See
- Negative Sentiment: A broader software sell-off is weighing on CRM, while S&P Global Ratings cut Salesforce’s credit rating to A from A+. S&P cited acquisition spending and a $25 billion debt-financed buyback, which lifted pro forma net debt relative to EBITDA above its previous downgrade threshold. The rating action raises concerns about leverage and aggressive capital allocation. Article: S&P cuts Salesforce to A on rising acquisition debt and buybacks
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 price target (up from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, October 20th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Mizuho raised their price target on Salesforce from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.98.
Check Out Our Latest Report on CRM
Salesforce Stock Performance
The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The company’s fifty day moving average is $240.29 and its 200 day moving average is $198.67. The company has a market cap of $176.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.24.
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Salesforce Dividend Announcement
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 16.04%.
Insider Activity
In related news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,486,958.84. The trade was a 28.66% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce
Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Latitude Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Costello Asset Management INC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 410.3% in the 1st quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 119 shares during the period. ABS Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $610,974,000. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Finally, Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Salesforce Company Profile
Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company best known for customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Its platform helps businesses manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce and customer data, and includes products such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Data Cloud and Agentforce.
The company also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data analytics and visualization, and MuleSoft for connecting applications and data. Salesforce’s products are used by organizations across a range of industries and are available to customers around the world.
Founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff and other co-founders, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco.
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