Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Down 2% – Here’s What Happened

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s share price traded down 2% on Thursday. The stock traded as low as $220.08 and last traded at $222.6650. Approximately 8,106,787 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 38% from the average daily volume of 13,116,208 shares. The stock had previously closed at $227.11.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s planned acquisition of AI voice-agent company Cresta could strengthen Agentforce and Service Cloud, adding capabilities for customer-service automation. The deal also brings acquisition costs and execution risks. Article: Salesforce Bets on AI Voice Agents With Planned Cresta Acquisition
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research upgraded Salesforce from “hold” to “strong buy,” a favorable analyst signal that may help counter near-term concerns. Article: Zacks Research rating
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce is expanding its Coworker offering and promoting a 21-times growth claim, but the report notes that no baseline is provided, making the figure difficult to assess. Article: Salesforce Expands Coworker’s Reach, but Its 21× Growth Claim Has No Baseline
• Neutral Sentiment: The company is extending Agent Fabric to help businesses manage AI agents across platforms. Its large customer base and reported 1.2 billion daily requests suggest potential, but investors still need evidence that the AI activity will translate into meaningful revenue. Article: Salesforce Stock: The 1 Number Investors Still Need to See
• Negative Sentiment: A broader software sell-off is weighing on CRM, while S&P Global Ratings cut Salesforce’s credit rating to A from A+. S&P cited acquisition spending and a $25 billion debt-financed buyback, which lifted pro forma net debt relative to EBITDA above its previous downgrade threshold. The rating action raises concerns about leverage and aggressive capital allocation. Article: S&P cuts Salesforce to A on rising acquisition debt and buybacks

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on CRM. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, September 17th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, September 11th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, Freedom Broker increased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $230.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.98.

Salesforce Price Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average of $239.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $198.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market cap of $176.09 billion, a PE ratio of 19.50, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.24.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion for 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 quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm 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. Equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 16.04%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 4,176 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Thor Investment Management Inc. OH ADV grew its position in Salesforce by 0.7% during the third quarter. Thor Investment Management Inc. OH ADV now owns 6,422 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,474,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 558 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $128,000 after buying an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc. lifted its position in Salesforce by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc. now owns 3,396 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $780,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Meridian Financial Partners LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Meridian Financial Partners LLC now owns 4,700 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,160,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Peterson Wealth Services boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Peterson Wealth Services now owns 1,549 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $356,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company best known for customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Its platform helps businesses manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce and customer data, and includes products such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Data Cloud and Agentforce.

The company also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data analytics and visualization, and MuleSoft for connecting applications and data. Salesforce’s products are used by organizations across a range of industries and are available to customers around the world.

Founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff and other co-founders, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco.