Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Down 4% - Here's What Happened

Key Points

• Salesforce shares fell 4% on Tuesday, trading as low as $171.56 after closing at $182.55 the prior day, even as volume came in above average.
• The company’s recent earnings were strong on the surface — Q1 EPS and revenue both beat estimates and revenue rose 13.3% year over year — but investors are weighing concerns that AI competition and execution challenges around Agentforce could pressure growth.
• Analysts remain generally constructive, with a Moderate Buy consensus and an average price target of $261.40, though several firms recently cut their targets amid mixed sentiment and the stock’s recent volatility.

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report)'s share price was down 4% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $171.56 and last traded at $175.2980. Approximately 15,372,969 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 14% from the average daily volume of 13,456,568 shares. The stock had previously closed at $182.55.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce reported strong Q1 results, but commentary around the quarter suggests AI competition may be pressuring the business as rivals push harder into enterprise software and agentic AI. AI Competition Pressured Salesforce (CRM) in Q1
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce is still benefiting from solid earnings quality and a positive reaction to its recent report, which helps support the investment case even as the stock remains volatile. Shareholders Can Be Confident That Salesforce's NYSE: CRM Earnings Are High Quality
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce announced another round of layoffs, signaling ongoing cost discipline, but the cuts also highlight that Agentforce and related AI initiatives still face execution hurdles. Salesforce lays off employees in a new round of cuts
• Positive Sentiment: Third-party vendors continue building around Salesforce’s AI ecosystem, including security and DevOps tools for Agentforce deployments, suggesting customer demand for the platform is growing. Flosum Outlines Agentic DevOps Approach as Enterprises Scale Salesforce Agentforce
• Positive Sentiment: Token launched biometric identity protection for Salesforce access, another sign that enterprise customers are expanding use cases and reinforcing the platform’s ecosystem. Token Announces Leading Biometric Assured Identity Protection for Salesforce Access
• Neutral Sentiment: A broad tech selloff has also made Salesforce look cheaper on a valuation basis, which may attract long-term buyers but does not fix near-term growth concerns. Technology Stocks Just Got Cheaper—Here Are 5 Mega-Caps Worth a Closer Look (CRM)

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on CRM shares. Northland Securities cut their price target on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $252.00 to $236.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $261.40.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $143.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.16. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $181.25 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $208.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released 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. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The company's revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.58 EPS. 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, research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $8,582,000 after purchasing an additional 3,102 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $611,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $747,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $807,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, United Bank lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $2,781,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.

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.