Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading 1.7% Higher – Here’s What Happened

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s share price shot up 1.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $167.21 and last traded at $165.9390. Approximately 10,315,218 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 26% from the average session volume of 14,028,688 shares. The stock had previously closed at $163.23.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on CRM. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $253.00 to $166.00 in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Scotiabank cut Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Bank of America started coverage on Salesforce in a report on Monday, May 18th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $160.00 price target for the company. Truist Financial cut Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Citizens Jmp reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $254.42.

Salesforce Price Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average is $173.23 and its 200 day moving average is $197.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $135.90 billion, a PE ratio of 19.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.18.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. Salesforce’s quarterly 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. As a group, equities analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were given a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Byrne Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,147,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its stake in Salesforce by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,548,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP grew its position in Salesforce by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP now owns 2,774 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $657,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc grew its position in Salesforce by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc now owns 3,152 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $835,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. increased its stake in Salesforce by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. now owns 4,239 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,123,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

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.