Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading 4.7% Higher - What's Next?

Key Points

• Salesforce shares rose 4.7% to about $259.29 in Monday trading, approaching the analyst consensus target of $267.12. MarketBeat analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus, though ratings range from Strong Buy to Sell.
• Salesforce’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations, with EPS of $5.90 versus a $3.27 consensus and revenue of $11.35 billion, up 10.8% year over year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, equal to a $1.76 annualized payout and a 0.7% yield. Meanwhile, a director sold 4,500 shares, while institutional investors own 80.43% of the stock.

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report)'s stock price was up 4.7% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $260.18 and last traded at $259.2920. 12,868,689 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 8% from the average daily volume of 14,038,386 shares. The stock had previously closed at $247.72.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the subject of several research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald upped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, May 18th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $160.00 price objective for the company. Evercore restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, August 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $267.12.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market cap of $213.40 billion, a PE ratio of 23.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.20. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $200.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $187.24.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its 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 return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%.The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.91 EPS. 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. Research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th will be given a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the sale, the director owned 5,437 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 3.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Marathon Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Marathon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 21,267 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $3,332,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the period. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 73.0% during the 2nd quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC now owns 2,136 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $335,000 after purchasing an additional 901 shares during the last quarter. MCF Advisors LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 35.4% during the 2nd quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 3,486 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $547,000 after purchasing an additional 912 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 190.4% in the second quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 26,644 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $4,174,000 after purchasing an additional 17,470 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) technology and related enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data analytics and business operations through subscription-based software and cloud services.

The company's product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud and the Salesforce Platform. Salesforce also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and artificial intelligence capabilities, including its Agentforce platform for building and deploying AI agents.

Founded in 1999, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and serves businesses and organizations across a broad range of industries and geographic markets worldwide.

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