Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Down 3.4% - Here's Why

Key Points

• Shares fell 3.4% intraday to $164.99 on heavy volume (17.9M, +38% vs. average) as the stock trades roughly 35% down YTD and near three‑year lows, highlighting momentum weakness.
• Fundamentals remain solid: Salesforce beat EPS estimates ($3.81 vs. $3.05), reported 12.1% revenue growth, raised the quarterly dividend to $0.44 and authorized a $25 billion share buyback, signaling management sees value in the stock.
• Headwinds persist from a market rotation toward AI infrastructure and hardware, recent analyst price‑target reductions despite a consensus "Moderate Buy" (~$280), and elevated options activity that could increase short‑term volatility.

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report)'s share price traded down 3.4% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $163.52 and last traded at $164.99. 17,899,098 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 38% from the average session volume of 13,001,856 shares. The stock had previously closed at $170.85.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong underlying fundamentals: recent coverage highlights Salesforce's trailing‑12‑month revenue (~$41.5B), solid profitability (77.6% gross margin, ~13.9% profit margin), nearly $15B operating cash flow and $7.8 diluted EPS — all arguments that the company’s core business can justify a higher multiple over time. Salesforce Stock Is Dropping Today: What's Going On?
• Positive Sentiment: Ecosystem wins / product integrations: Redpanda’s new real‑time, bidirectional connectors to Salesforce position CRM more as a central data hub — a feature that can increase platform stickiness and justify long‑term value capture. Salesforce Connectors From Redpanda Put Focus On CRM Valuation Gap
• Neutral Sentiment: Options activity signaling volatility: recent options flow has drawn attention — heightened options interest can presage larger moves (up or down) around earnings, product news or macro catalysts but is not a directional confirmation on its own. Is the Options Market Predicting a Spike in Salesforce Stock?
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation debate / buy/hold view: some analysts note CRM is down sharply YTD (~35%) and argue the pullback plus ongoing AI adoption and improving growth make it a hold at current prices — this frames the decline as a potential buying opportunity for longer‑term investors. Salesforce Plunges 35% YTD: Should You Buy, Sell or Hold the Stock?
• Negative Sentiment: Sector shock from new AI models: reports about Anthropic’s latest model and broader headlines have sparked a selloff across software stocks, pressuring CRM as investors rotate toward AI infrastructure and hardware beneficiaries. Anthropic's Latest AI Model Sends a Shockwave Through Software Stocks
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/strategy commentary: high‑profile commentary (e.g., Jim Cramer) indicates a renewed “buy hardware, sell software” rotation, which can keep downward pressure on valuation multiples for large software vendors like Salesforce. Cramer explains the divergence in tech stocks – and why software may continue to lag
• Negative Sentiment: Stock price technical and momentum concerns: coverage noting three‑year lows and a steep YTD decline highlight momentum weakness that can perpetuate selling until clearer positive catalysts emerge. Salesforce stock just crashed to 3-year lows; Here's why
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive/product signals: items about alternatives (e.g., Slackbot as a CRM interface) and specialized Salesforce‑based solutions could be read as both ecosystem expansion and potential competitive friction for certain use cases. Slack instead of Salesforce: Slackbot becomes CRM interface

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Arete Research upgraded shares of Salesforce to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $281.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $280.21.

Salesforce Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $190.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $227.04. The company has a market capitalization of $152.29 billion, a PE ratio of 21.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. Salesforce's quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This is a positive change from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. Salesforce's payout ratio is presently 21.25%.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Purpose Unlimited Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at $285,000. Cornerstone Planning LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at $2,784,000. Osbon Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth about $139,000. World Investment Advisors lifted its stake in Salesforce by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 72,134 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $19,109,000 after acquiring an additional 4,329 shares during the period. Finally, Farmers National Bank grew its holdings in Salesforce by 103.6% during the 4th quarter. Farmers National Bank now owns 2,400 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $636,000 after acquiring an additional 1,221 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.