Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Down 3.3% – Here’s What Happened
by Doug Wharley · The Cerbat GemShares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report) dropped 3.3% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $219.36 and last traded at $219.7010. Approximately 12,976,042 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 47% from the average daily volume of 8,808,328 shares. The stock had previously closed at $227.11.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
Several research analysts recently commented on CRM shares. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $430.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, January 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $260.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.51.
Check Out Our Latest Report on Salesforce
Salesforce Stock Performance
The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $205.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.26. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $249.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $250.01.
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.41 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. Analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Salesforce Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were paid a $0.416 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 22.16%.
Insider Activity at Salesforce
In related news, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total value of $31,605,171.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,803,314.90. The trade was a 49.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total transaction of $31,598.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,085,096,889. This trade represents a 0.00% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 149,927 shares of company stock valued at $35,448,144. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
Institutional Trading of Salesforce
Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Salesforce by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after purchasing an additional 3,102 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $611,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $747,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $807,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, Sowell Financial Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 2.6% during the second quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC now owns 9,585 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,614,000 after buying an additional 240 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.