Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Up 4.2% After Dividend Announcement

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s stock price shot up 4.2% during trading on Tuesday after the company announced a dividend. The stock traded as high as $188.67 and last traded at $185.6410. 15,324,397 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 29% from the average session volume of 11,875,029 shares. The stock had previously closed at $178.16.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 22.16%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on CRM shares. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Arete Research raised Salesforce to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday. Macquarie Infrastructure increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $283.49.

Salesforce Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $186.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.27. 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 50 day moving average price of $225.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $238.59.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.28% and a net margin of 17.96%.Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.78 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results showed a big non?GAAP EPS beat and double?digit revenue growth, with Agentforce cited as a key growth driver — the earnings strength is the main bullish catalyst. Salesforce Crushed Earnings by 25% and Still Can’t Get Any Respect
• Positive Sentiment: Management authorized a $50 billion buyback, raised FY30 revenue ambition to ~$63B and increased the quarterly dividend — these capital?return moves support EPS per?share upside and signal confidence from the board. Salesforce targets $63B revenue by FY30 while expanding Agentforce and $50B buyback
• Positive Sentiment: Some brokers (e.g., Wedbush) reiterated bullish views and called CRM a long?term AI winner, supporting a recovery narrative despite the recent sell?off. Salesforce Stock Climbs After Earnings. Wedbush Calls It ‘Long-Term Winner’ of the AI Boom
• Neutral Sentiment: Wall Street reacted with many price?target resets — several firms trimmed targets but maintained Buy/Overweight ratings, leaving consensus upside but also a wider target dispersion to watch. Salesforce’s AI Bet Is Paying Off—the Buyback Proves It
• Negative Sentiment: Revenue outlook/near?term guidance was viewed as soft by some investors — the quarter’s guidance cadence (mid?year weakness) pressured shares in after?hours trading. Salesforce tops Q4 estimates but softer revenue guidance pressures shares
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts flagged mixed cloud momentum and cautioned on a near?term growth slowdown even as AI adoption builds — raises the risk of cyclical softness before the AI inflection fully materializes. Salesforce faces near-term growth slowdown as AI inflection builds, Jefferies says
• Negative Sentiment: Several firms cut price targets (examples include Sanford Bernstein’s move to Underperform and multiple downward adjustments across banks), which can cap near?term upside until guidance clarity improves. Analyst price target updates

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total value of $31,605,171.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,803,314.90. The trade was a 49.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Evolution Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Salesforce in the second 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.