Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading 3.4% Higher - Here's Why

Key Points

• Salesforce shares rose 3.4% on Thursday, trading as high as $174.54 after closing at $167.00 the prior day, though volume was below average.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive: Salesforce has a Moderate Buy consensus rating, with a consensus price target of $254.42, despite a few recent rating cuts.
• The company recently beat earnings expectations, reporting $3.88 EPS versus $3.13 expected and revenue of $11.13 billion, while also maintaining quarterly dividend payments of $0.44 per share.

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report)'s stock price was up 3.4% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $174.54 and last traded at $172.5970. Approximately 11,169,209 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 20% from the average session volume of 13,891,070 shares. The stock had previously closed at $167.00.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on CRM shares. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. BTIG Research reissued a "buy" rating and set a $255.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Citizens Jmp restated a "market outperform" rating and set a $315.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered shares of Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $254.42.

Salesforce Trading Up 3.4%

The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $171.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $191.99. The firm has a market cap of $141.36 billion, a PE ratio of 19.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.18.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 270,913 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in Salesforce by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $13,286,909,000 after acquiring an additional 659,573 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its stake in 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 valued at $12,552,896,000 after acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Salesforce by 13.3% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $5,751,073,000 after acquiring 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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