Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Up 2.3% - Still a Buy?

Key Points

• Salesforce reported a strong quarter with a $3.81 EPS beat and 12.1% revenue growth, while new AI-driven initiatives like the Agentforce contact‑center product and management’s AI/cloud positioning are helping fuel recent momentum.
• The company priced a $25 billion senior note offering to help finance a $50 billion share‑buyback plan, a move that raises leverage and drew tepid investor demand, prompting analyst caution and some downgrades.
• Shares traded up ~2.3% intraday to a high of $204.86 on ~104% higher volume, and Wall Street consensus remains a Moderate Buy with an average target near $282 despite multiple recently lowered price targets.

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) shot up 2.3% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $204.86 and last traded at $198.6840. 26,140,619 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 104% from the average session volume of 12,788,233 shares. The stock had previously closed at $194.13.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce launched "Agentforce," a redesigned contact-center effort aiming to simplify and modernize agent workflows—this product push supports CRM’s AI positioning and could improve customer retention and upsell opportunities. Salesforce Aims to End the ‘Frankenstein’ Contact Center With Agentforce
• Positive Sentiment: Management reiterated strategy and highlighted record fiscal performance at investor conferences, reinforcing confidence in long-term AI and cloud growth drivers that underpinned recent share gains. Salesforce (CRM) Presents at Morgan Stanley’s Conference, Here’s What You Need to Know
• Positive Sentiment: Market commentary notes CRM’s recent monthly rally (up >5% over a month) driven by strong Q4 results and AI momentum—this helps sentiment and may attract momentum buyers. CRM Stock Up More Than 5% in a Month: Should You Buy, Sell or Hold?
• Neutral Sentiment: A comparative retrospective piece shows long-term returns versus peers (Oracle), useful context for buy-and-hold investors but not market-moving on its own. What If You Had Invested $1,000 in Oracle or Salesforce 10 Years Ago?
• Neutral Sentiment: LivePerson announced integrations (LivePerson Sync) that can surface CRM data in agent workflows; this validates Salesforce’s platform ecosystem but also highlights competitive integrations in the conversational-AI space. LivePerson Announces Event-driven Orchestration Partnership with Coral Active
• Neutral Sentiment: Smaller partner integrations (e.g., Credibly with a Salesforce-powered CRM) keep the ecosystem healthy but are unlikely to move the stock materially. Credibly Streamlines Merchant Application Process, Expands Broker Integration with Cloudsquare
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce priced a massive $25B senior note offering intended to fund share buybacks (part of a larger $50B repurchase plan). Raising debt at scale signals a shift toward leverage to support EPS and buybacks rather than M&A—this increases balance-sheet risk and has prompted scrutiny. Salesforce Prices Public Offering of Senior Notes
• Negative Sentiment: Market reception to the bond sale has been tepid: investors demanded higher yields and order books were softer than typical for an issuer of Salesforce’s size—this spooked some investors and underscores concern about higher leverage and AI-related execution risk. Salesforce Sees Tepid Demand for Bond Sale to Fund Share Buyback
• Negative Sentiment: Credit agencies and some analysts have turned cautious: coverage notes rating downgrades and at least one analyst downgrade/pessimistic price forecasts, which can pressure multiple compression and investor sentiment. Salesforce Weighs Debt Funded Buybacks And Partner Cloud Against Valuation
• Negative Sentiment: Recent analyst downgrade(s) and a pessimistic forecast highlighted by coverage outlets add downward pressure on the stock and may encourage short-term sellers. Salesforce NYSE: CRM Stock Price Down 2% on Analyst Downgrade
• Negative Sentiment: Short interest rose in February (~14.8% increase), a signal that some traders are positioning for further weakness; while still a small % of float, it can add volatility around news events. CRM Stock Up More Than 5% in a Month: Should You Buy, Sell or Hold?

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Roth Mkm lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Citizens Jmp restated a "market outperform" rating and set a $430.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. DA Davidson cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $375.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $282.06.

Salesforce Trading Up 2.3%

The business's 50 day simple moving average is $213.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $235.79. The stock has a market cap of $183.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.44, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion for 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 revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.78 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm 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 $0.44 dividend. 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 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is currently 22.54%.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 7,299 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was bought at an average price of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 10,677 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. The trade was a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Farmers National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 103.6% during the fourth 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 during the period. Meadowbrook Advisors Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth approximately $945,000. AG Campbell Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $723,000. Green Ridge Wealth Planning LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at $869,000. Finally, PeakShares LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at $1,467,000. Institutional investors 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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