Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Down 3.9% - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• Salesforce shares fell 3.9% to about $180.95 in Thursday trading, with the stock briefly reaching $175.90; trading volume was below its average.
• Analyst views remain mixed: Morgan Stanley cut its price target to $185 and HC Wainwright downgraded the stock, while Citi, B. Riley and HSBC maintained or initiated bullish views. The overall consensus remains “Moderate Buy” with a $249.51 target price.
• Salesforce recently beat quarterly expectations, reporting $3.88 in EPS and $11.13 billion in revenue, up 13.3% year over year. The company also paid a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, while institutional investors own 80.43% of the stock.

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report)'s stock price traded down 3.9% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $175.90 and last traded at $180.9530. 11,652,114 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 16% from the average session volume of 13,881,463 shares. The stock had previously closed at $188.38.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. HC Wainwright cut Salesforce to a "negative" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Morgan Stanley restated an "equal weight" rating and set a $185.00 price objective (down from $287.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Citigroup raised Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. B. Riley Financial increased their target price on Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, HSBC lifted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $249.51.

Salesforce Stock Down 3.9%

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 firm's 50-day moving average price is $170.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $185.57. The firm has a market cap of $148.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 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 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. Salesforce'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. As a group, research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is 20.37%.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $23,800,353,000 after purchasing an additional 270,913 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Salesforce by 1.3% during 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 buying an additional 659,573 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its stake in Salesforce by 24,056.7% during 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 buying an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $6,019,199,000 after buying an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.8% during 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 buying an additional 791,345 shares in the last quarter. 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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