Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Down 1.7% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) fell 1.7% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $160.50 and last traded at $161.7430. 15,568,676 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 16% from the average session volume of 13,448,682 shares. The stock had previously closed at $164.55.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce agreed to buy AI customer-service platform Fin for about $3.6 billion, a move designed to strengthen its Agentforce and broader agentic AI strategy. Investors appear to view the deal as a faster path to capturing demand in autonomous customer support. Reuters: Salesforce to buy Fin for about $3.6 billion
• Positive Sentiment: Wedbush and other bullish voices said the acquisition shows Salesforce is moving more aggressively than expected to secure the AI agent market, which could improve long-term growth and competitive positioning. Proactive Investors: Salesforce bets $3.6B on Fin as Wedbush sees M&A strategy paying off
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts reaffirmed Buy ratings, including Canaccord with a $225 target and Cantor Fitzgerald with a $250 target, signaling meaningful upside from current levels. Yahoo Finance: Analyst believes Salesforce stock is trading at a 52% discount
• Positive Sentiment: Commentary highlighting Salesforce’s record cash generation, rising margins, and a $50 billion buyback plan suggests the company has room to reward shareholders while still funding growth investments. Yahoo Finance: Can CRM’s Record Cash Generation Support Robust Shareholder Returns?
• Neutral Sentiment: Some recent coverage argues Salesforce’s acquisition spree has weighed on the stock over time, with concerns that growth has not fully offset the cost of buying capabilities instead of building them internally. Invezz: Salesforce stock wipeout hits $212 billion as acquisition spree backfires

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on CRM. Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday. Daiwa Securities Group cut their target price on Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, June 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $259.26.

Salesforce Trading Down 1.7%

The business has a fifty day moving average of $179.65 and a 200-day moving average of $206.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $132.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.Salesforce’s revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.58 earnings per share. 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, equities analysts anticipate 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 will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In related news, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the purchase, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CRM. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its stake in Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $12,552,896,000 after purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $3,182,951,000. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Salesforce by 159.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,106,255,000 after acquiring an additional 10,636,161 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in Salesforce by 130.2% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,363,096,000 after acquiring an additional 7,160,302 shares during the period. Finally, Cardano Risk Management B.V. boosted its position in Salesforce by 924.7% during the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 3,883,610 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,028,807,000 after acquiring an additional 3,504,605 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

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.