Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Down 3.9% on Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) were down 3.9% on Monday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $398.00 to $287.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Salesforce traded as low as $174.57 and last traded at $177.9990. Approximately 15,464,490 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 31% from the average daily volume of 11,775,777 shares. The stock had previously closed at $185.16.

CRM has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $265.00 to $235.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Salesforce from $260.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Salesforce from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $340.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $304.33.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was bought at an average price of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the purchase, the director owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 96,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $260.58 per share, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. This trade represents a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Kera Capital Partners Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 143.7% during the 4th quarter. Kera Capital Partners Inc. now owns 2,135 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $566,000 after acquiring an additional 1,259 shares during the last quarter. Walser Wealth Management Company A Ltd Liability Co purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth approximately $497,000. MV Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,548,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. raised its stake in Salesforce by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 4,282 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,134,000 after buying an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cambient Family Office LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $508,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day moving average is $230.69 and its 200-day moving average is $240.01. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a market cap of $166.79 billion, a PE ratio of 23.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.27.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.27 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.41 earnings per share. The company’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 predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company 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%.

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.