Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Up 4.9% – Time to Buy?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares traded up 4.9% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $172.76 and last traded at $171.39. Approximately 12,894,921 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 7% from the average session volume of 13,888,729 shares. The stock had previously closed at $163.32.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $254.42.

Salesforce Stock Up 4.9%

The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $171.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $194.02. The company has a market capitalization of $140.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.84, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. 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, sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Salesforce by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after purchasing an additional 3,102 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $611,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 9.0% during 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 last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% in the second 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 last quarter. Finally, United Bank lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,781,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.