Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Down 4% – Here’s What Happened

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s share price dropped 4% during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $171.56 and last traded at $175.2980. Approximately 15,372,969 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 14% from the average daily volume of 13,456,568 shares. The stock had previously closed at $182.55.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce reported strong Q1 results, but commentary around the quarter suggests AI competition may be pressuring the business as rivals push harder into enterprise software and agentic AI. AI Competition Pressured Salesforce (CRM) in Q1
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce is still benefiting from solid earnings quality and a positive reaction to its recent report, which helps support the investment case even as the stock remains volatile. Shareholders Can Be Confident That Salesforce’s (NYSE:CRM) Earnings Are High Quality
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce announced another round of layoffs, signaling ongoing cost discipline, but the cuts also highlight that Agentforce and related AI initiatives still face execution hurdles. Salesforce lays off employees in a new round of cuts
• Positive Sentiment: Third-party vendors continue building around Salesforce’s AI ecosystem, including security and DevOps tools for Agentforce deployments, suggesting customer demand for the platform is growing. Flosum Outlines Agentic DevOps Approach as Enterprises Scale Salesforce Agentforce
• Positive Sentiment: Token launched biometric identity protection for Salesforce access, another sign that enterprise customers are expanding use cases and reinforcing the platform’s ecosystem. Token Announces Leading Biometric Assured Identity Protection for Salesforce Access
• Neutral Sentiment: A broad tech selloff has also made Salesforce look cheaper on a valuation basis, which may attract long-term buyers but does not fix near-term growth concerns. Technology Stocks Just Got Cheaper—Here Are 5 Mega-Caps Worth a Closer Look (CRM)

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. UBS Group reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Piper Sandler cut Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on Salesforce from $250.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, B. Riley Financial boosted their target price on Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $261.40.

Salesforce Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $143.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.29, a PEG ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $181.25 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $208.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced 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. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.58 EPS. Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after acquiring an additional 3,102 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $611,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $747,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $807,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, United Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 5.2% during the second quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,781,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the period. 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.