Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Down 7.1% – Here’s Why

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) was down 7.1% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $240.36 and last traded at $240.9530. Approximately 13,548,798 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 90% from the average daily volume of 7,131,634 shares. The stock had previously closed at $259.40.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $330.00 to $338.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $405.00 to $398.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, December 9th. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. DA Davidson raised their target price on Salesforce from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price target on Salesforce from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $326.50.

Salesforce Stock Down 7.1%

The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market cap of $225.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.26. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $250.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $251.35.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.86 by $0.39. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The firm had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.41 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were issued a dividend of $0.416 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total transaction of $31,598.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,085,096,889. This trade represents a 0.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,803,314.90. This represents a 49.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 152,784 shares of company stock valued at $36,173,287. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 87,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,814,000 after acquiring an additional 3,387 shares during the period. Grant Private Wealth Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the third quarter worth about $1,458,000. Advyzon Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 57.4% in the second quarter. Advyzon Investment Management LLC now owns 1,884 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $514,000 after purchasing an additional 687 shares during the period. CX Institutional grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 78.0% in the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 43,186 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $10,235,000 after purchasing an additional 18,927 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 8.5% in the second quarter. Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC now owns 206,614 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $56,342,000 after purchasing an additional 16,176 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Salesforce

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.