Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Up 1.3% – What’s Next?

Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) traded up 1.3% on Monday . The company traded as high as $195.20 and last traded at $193.89. 12,023,094 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 8% from the average session volume of 11,131,182 shares. The stock had previously closed at $191.35.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $315.00 to $280.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on Salesforce from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Finally, Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $430.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $323.57.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day moving average is $243.57 and its two-hundred day moving average is $245.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $181.67 billion, a PE ratio of 25.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The company had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.41 earnings per share. Salesforce’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 18th were issued a dividend of $0.416 per share. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly 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 position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director G Mason Morfit bought 96,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. This trade represents a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 270,913 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,420,657 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $11,732,966,000 after acquiring an additional 159,739 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,751,073,000 after purchasing an additional 791,345 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,051,119 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,753,519,000 after acquiring an additional 1,729,440 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 159.0% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,106,255,000 after purchasing an additional 10,636,161 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.