Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Up 1.7% - Should You Buy?

Key Points

• Salesforce shares rose 1.7% in Thursday trading, helped by upbeat analyst commentary. Guggenheim upgraded the stock to Buy with a $228 target, citing recent weakness as an attractive entry point.
• Analysts remain generally constructive on CRM, with a consensus Moderate Buy rating and an average price target of $254.42. Citizens also reiterated a Market Outperform rating and a $315 target, pointing to Fin acquisition progress and Agentforce expansion.
• Despite the positive sentiment, the stock has been under pressure recently, with the article noting a sharp decline over the past month and concerns about slowing momentum and AI execution risk. Salesforce’s latest earnings beat expectations, though, with EPS of $3.88 on revenue of $11.13 billion.

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report)'s stock price rose 1.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $167.21 and last traded at $165.9390. 10,315,218 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 26% from the average session volume of 14,028,688 shares. The stock had previously closed at $163.23.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Guggenheim upgraded Salesforce to Buy from Hold/Neutral and set a $228 price target, saying recent weakness has created an attractive entry point. The move helped drive shares higher. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Citizens reiterated a Market Outperform rating and a $315 target following Salesforce’s Fin acquisition and continued Agentforce expansion, reinforcing the bullish AI-growth narrative. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain broadly constructive, with Salesforce carrying a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating, suggesting Street sentiment is still supportive despite recent volatility. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: New commentary says Data 360 momentum, AI-driven ARR growth, and potential Informatica synergies could support stronger fiscal 2027 revenue growth as customer demand expands. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Several market writeups frame the recent pullback as a possible buying opportunity, but they mainly reinforce the same valuation-and-growth debate rather than introduce new fundamentals. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce remains down sharply over the past month and had a weak June, showing the market is still worried about slowing momentum and AI-related execution risk. Article Title

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CRM shares. Barclays raised Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Salesforce from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Northland Securities lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Roth Mkm restated a "buy" rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $254.42.

Salesforce Trading Up 1.7%

The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $135.90 billion, a PE ratio of 19.21, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.18. The business's 50-day moving average is $174.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $198.62.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Salesforce by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $23,800,353,000 after acquiring an additional 270,913 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in 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 buying an additional 659,573 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $12,552,896,000 after acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $6,019,199,000 after acquiring an additional 2,669,891 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $5,751,073,000 after purchasing an additional 791,345 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Company Profile

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.

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