Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Falls 2.7% – Time to Sell?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s stock price fell 2.7% on Tuesday. The stock traded as low as $240.63 and last traded at $240.8250. Approximately 7,456,552 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 44% from the average session volume of 13,329,114 shares. The stock had previously closed at $247.61.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s planned usage-based pricing for AI agent calls could create a new revenue stream tied to customer adoption, while Agent Fabric upgrades are designed to improve testing, evaluation, and cost controls. Salesforce Brings In Usage Based AI Billing With New Agent Fabric Controls
• Positive Sentiment: Navatar’s integration of Claude-powered recommendations and workflow actions into its Salesforce-based platform provides another example of third-party demand for Salesforce’s AI ecosystem, particularly in private equity and M&A. Navatar Brings Claude-Powered Recommendations and Actions to CRM
• Positive Sentiment: One valuation analysis modestly raised its fair-value view as perspectives on Salesforce’s AI opportunity and Braze-related customer engagement trends evolved. Another analysis argued that the stock appears inexpensive relative to its earnings power. Salesforce Stock Sees Modest Fair Value Lift Salesforce Stock Looks Cheap Relative to Its Earnings Power
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce continues to be viewed as a leading CRM provider, with fiscal 2026 revenue of approximately $41.5 billion, substantial free cash flow, and about 11% growth in its latest quarter. Comparisons with Datadog and Synopsys highlight Salesforce’s scale and profitability, but do not provide a new company-specific catalyst. Salesforce vs. Datadog
• Negative Sentiment: ServiceNow’s sharp selloff after reporting slower contracted-revenue growth, along with weakness in Fortinet and other software names, triggered sympathy selling in Salesforce and raised concerns about a sector-wide slowdown. ServiceNow Tumbles as Slower Contract Growth Overshadows AI Target
• Negative Sentiment: The broader pullback has cast doubt on whether the recent recovery in software stocks can continue, leaving Salesforce vulnerable despite its AI product momentum. ServiceNow and Fortinet Results Dent SaaS Sentiment

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price objective (up from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. KeyCorp began coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Monday, October 12th. They issued a “sector weight” rating for the company. Mizuho increased their target price on Salesforce from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Argus raised their price target on Salesforce from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 31st. Finally, Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, September 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.98.

Salesforce Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The business has a fifty day moving average of $237.98 and a 200 day moving average of $199.18. The stock has a market cap of $189.05 billion, a PE ratio of 20.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.26.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.91 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.04%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the acquisition, the director owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Trek Financial LLC grew its holdings in Salesforce by 17.3% in the third quarter. Trek Financial LLC now owns 14,873 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,414,000 after purchasing an additional 2,195 shares during the period. True Freedom Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 11.9% during the third quarter. True Freedom Investing LLC now owns 19,350 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,442,000 after purchasing an additional 2,058 shares during the last quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC now owns 18,196 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,177,000 after buying an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Traynor Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Salesforce in the third quarter valued at about $234,000. Finally, Pinkerton Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 11.6% in the third quarter. Pinkerton Wealth LLC now owns 19,409 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,456,000 after buying an additional 2,018 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc (NYSE: CRM) is a global enterprise software company that provides cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) technology. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data, analytics and interactions with customers across digital and traditional channels.

The company’s products include Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud and Data Cloud. Salesforce also offers Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and Slack for workplace collaboration.