Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Down 1.5% – Here’s Why
by Scott Moore · The Cerbat GemShares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report) were down 1.5% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $192.10 and last traded at $193.15. Approximately 11,459,254 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 9% from the average daily volume of 12,553,317 shares. The stock had previously closed at $196.05.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on CRM shares. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 27th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $340.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $283.14.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Salesforce
Salesforce Stock Down 1.5%
The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $221.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $237.77. The company has a market cap of $180.98 billion, a PE ratio of 24.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.29.
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The business had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.78 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.
Salesforce Increases Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 21.25%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other Salesforce news, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 96,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 1,936 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce
Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Finally, Gilpin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.
About Salesforce
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.