Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Down 2.5% on Analyst Downgrade

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) dropped 2.5% during trading on Friday after DA Davidson lowered their price target on the stock from $235.00 to $200.00. DA Davidson currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Salesforce traded as low as $189.92 and last traded at $194.47. Approximately 16,209,539 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 28% from the average daily volume of 12,622,304 shares. The stock had previously closed at $199.47.

Several other research firms also recently commented on CRM. KeyCorp decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Evercore lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price target (down from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $283.06.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 96,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. This trade represents a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat and raised outlook: CRM reported a large EPS beat ($3.81 vs. ~$3.05 est.) with double?digit revenue growth and stronger margins; management issued FY27 and Q1 EPS guidance above consensus, supporting the upside case. Salesforce Q4 earnings & guidance (MarketBeat)
• Positive Sentiment: Big capital return: Salesforce authorized an additional $50 billion buyback and raised the quarterly dividend — a clear management signal that they view the shares as attractive and that buybacks will support EPS. CNBC: $50B buyback and dividend
• Positive Sentiment: Bull case on AI traction: Analysts such as Wedbush and MarketBeat note Agentforce and AI monetization as real early traction — supporting the narrative that AI will augment, not replace, CRM’s software moat. Investopedia: Wedbush bullish on AI
• Neutral Sentiment: Sector washout / potential bottoming: Coverage argues the broader SaaS selloff (the “SaaSpocalypse”) may be overdone and that oversold technicals create a rebound setup — but sentiment remains fragile. MarketBeat: SaaS rebound thesis
• Neutral Sentiment: Mixed analyst reactions: Many firms trimmed price targets after earnings (TD Cowen, Mizuho, Stifel, Barclays, etc.), but ratings range from Underperform to Outperform — leaving consensus upside wide and creating continued volatility. Benzinga: analyst price target moves
• Negative Sentiment: Softer/ambiguous revenue guide and near?term growth worries: Some outlets and analysts flagged FY27 revenue/growth guidance as softer than hoped, and Jefferies highlighted a near?term growth slowdown even as AI adoption builds. Proactive Investors: Jefferies on near?term slowdown
• Negative Sentiment: Target cuts and underperform notes pressured sentiment: A handful of downgrades/target trims (including Sanford Bernstein’s cut to $194/Underperform and DA Davidson’s move to $200/Neutral) reinforced selling pressure despite the beat. TickerReport / Benzinga: DA Davidson & Sanford Bernstein notes
• Negative Sentiment: Conflicting data points in third?party summaries (some reports show slight misses on revenue metrics or variable non?GAAP metrics) added short?term selling after the print. Quiver/summary: mixed datapoints

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Groupama Asset Managment lifted its stake in Salesforce by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 39,399 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $10,435,000 after purchasing an additional 825 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 4,837 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,281,000 after buying an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. TD Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 89.3% during the 4th quarter. TD Capital Management LLC now owns 212 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Tempo Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,134,000. Finally, Thryve Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at $446,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Down 2.5%

The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $225.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $238.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $182.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.90, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.28% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.18 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.78 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is a positive change from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 22.16%.

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.