Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Down 2.1% – Here’s Why

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s stock price fell 2.1% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $161.47 and last traded at $167.5520. Approximately 13,414,961 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 3% from the average daily volume of 13,901,128 shares. The stock had previously closed at $171.22.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the topic of several analyst reports. Truist Financial lowered shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. B. Riley Financial raised their target price on Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Piper Sandler lowered Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Wedbush assumed coverage on Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $254.42.

Salesforce Stock Down 2.1%

The company has a market capitalization of $137.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $171.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $193.37.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Salesforce announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Institutional investors 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.