Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Down 2.2% - Time to Sell?

Key Points

• Salesforce shares fell 2.2% on Thursday, with trading volume surging to more than 55.5 million shares, far above its average daily volume.
• Sentiment on the stock is mixed: Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded Salesforce to buy with a $200 price target, while UBS kept a neutral view and some commentary has raised concerns about valuation and AI monetization.
• Despite near-term weakness, Salesforce recently reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue, and its AI push continues to draw attention, including the $3.6 billion acquisition of Fin to strengthen its automation and customer-agent tools.

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report)'s stock price was down 2.2% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $149.80 and last traded at $151.6690. 55,503,160 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 300% from the average daily volume of 13,881,371 shares. The stock had previously closed at $155.02.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded Salesforce to buy and set a $200 price target, implying meaningful upside from current levels. Read More
• Positive Sentiment: Truist gave Salesforce a vote of confidence after the company announced its $3.6 billion acquisition of Fin, which should strengthen its AI/customer agent offerings and deepen its automation push. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple articles highlight Salesforce as a long-term growth and generative AI play, with coverage pointing to Agentforce and broader AI monetization as potential drivers of future revenue growth. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: UBS reaffirmed its neutral rating, suggesting the market is still divided on Salesforce’s near-term setup despite the AI narrative. Read More
• Neutral Sentiment: A comparison piece versus Oracle highlights that Salesforce’s recent results and outlook are being judged against peers, with investors still parsing which cloud software name has the stronger earnings momentum. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Some recent commentary has focused on valuation cuts and questions about AI growth monetization, which may be weighing on sentiment and helping explain why the shares remain weak. Article Title

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CRM. HSBC upped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an "overweight" rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Piper Sandler lowered Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $257.61.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market cap of $124.22 billion, a PE ratio of 17.55, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.16. The company's 50-day moving average price is $178.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $205.28.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.58 earnings per share. 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, equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. 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.

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