Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Climb 1.8% – What’s Next?

Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) rose 1.8% on Wednesday. The stock traded as high as $218.23 and last traded at $217.3520. Approximately 6,187,291 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 52% from the average daily volume of 13,012,349 shares. The stock had previously closed at $213.48.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on CRM. Zacks Research upgraded Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. KeyCorp started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, October 12th. They set a “sector weight” rating on the stock. Finally, Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 target price (up from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Four 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 given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.98.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.0%

The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $179.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $236.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $198.42.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $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. On average, research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce 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 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 4,176 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 4.3% during the third quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 741,533 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $170,234,000 after buying an additional 30,439 shares during the last quarter. 49 Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter worth $209,000. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 78.6% during the 3rd quarter. Conscious Wealth Investments LLC now owns 20,711 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,717,000 after acquiring an additional 9,116 shares during the period. Buckland Partners Management Co LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Buckland Partners Management Co LLC now owns 10,232 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,353,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Finally, Wealth Alliance LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Wealth Alliance LLC now owns 2,501 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $574,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.