Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Up 8.2% After Dividend Announcement

Key Points

• Salesforce shares jumped 8.2% after the company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, with the stock trading as high as $188.55 intraday.
• The dividend will be paid on July 2 to shareholders of record on June 11, implying a $1.76 annualized payout and a 0.9% yield.
• Recent earnings were solid, with Salesforce beating Wall Street estimates on both EPS and revenue, while also lifting FY2027 guidance and authorizing a $25 billion share buyback.

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report)'s share price shot up 8.2% during mid-day trading on Friday following a dividend announcement from the company. The stock traded as high as $188.55 and last traded at $190.5980. 4,770,273 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 63% from the average session volume of 12,944,237 shares. The stock had previously closed at $176.17.The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.54%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CRM shares. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $240.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, KeyCorp lowered their price target on Salesforce from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $259.47.

Salesforce Stock Up 7.5%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $180.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $210.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $155.02 billion, a PE ratio of 22.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 16.70% and a net margin of 18.73%.The firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.58 earnings per share. 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, analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce delivered a strong quarterly beat, with EPS and revenue both ahead of Wall Street estimates, and it said Agentforce annualized recurring revenue topped $1 billion, signaling early traction in its AI strategy.
• Positive Sentiment: The company raised FY2027 revenue guidance and launched a $25 billion accelerated buyback, both of which should support investor confidence and share demand.
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, adding a shareholder-return element that may appeal to income-focused investors.
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce’s presentation at the Jefferies Software, Internet & AI Conference kept attention on its AI roadmap, but no major new catalyst from that event was highlighted.
• Negative Sentiment: Several reports and analyst notes said the market remains unconvinced that Salesforce has fully addressed the “AI threat” narrative, with concerns that AI agents could pressure its core software model over time.
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the beat, Salesforce’s revenue outlook and backlog dynamics were seen as only modestly ahead or slightly below expectations, helping explain why the stock has remained subdued.
• Negative Sentiment: Wall Street largely kept a cautious tone after earnings, with multiple firms lowering price targets and some calling the results “uninspiring,” which may be weighing on the shares.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, 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 acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the acquisition, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position 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 valued at $23,800,353,000 after acquiring an additional 270,913 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Salesforce by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its position in Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $12,552,896,000 after purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in Salesforce by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $5,751,073,000 after purchasing an additional 791,345 shares during 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.

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