Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Down 2.9% – Here’s Why

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) dropped 2.9% on Monday. The stock traded as low as $221.18 and last traded at $227.1710. 10,249,747 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 27% from the average daily volume of 13,953,851 shares. The stock had previously closed at $234.02.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CRM. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, September 11th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, September 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $275.14.

Salesforce Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $186.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $215.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $190.55.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.91 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director directly owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 4,176 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at $4,486,958.84. This trade represents a 28.66% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $11,396,844,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at about $1,914,086,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in Salesforce by 130.2% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,363,096,000 after purchasing an additional 7,160,302 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $844,928,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc (NYSE: CRM) develops cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software and enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, analytics, data integration and collaboration through subscription-based services.

The company’s product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Platform, Data Cloud and Tableau. Salesforce also offers MuleSoft integration technology, Slack collaboration software and artificial intelligence capabilities through its Einstein platform.