Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Up 1.2% – What’s Next?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares rose 1.2% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $193.70 and last traded at $186.1970. 11,520,115 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 17% from the average session volume of 13,840,349 shares. The stock had previously closed at $184.02.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. Piper Sandler lowered Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. B. Riley Financial boosted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. UBS Group reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $249.51.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The business has a 50-day moving average of $170.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $184.49. 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 company has a market cap of $152.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.18.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $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. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 20.37%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Northstar Group Inc. purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $860,000. Ballast Inc. increased its position in Salesforce by 54.0% during the 2nd quarter. Ballast Inc. now owns 9,737 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,525,000 after buying an additional 3,415 shares in the last quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 12.8% in the second quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,383 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $217,000 after buying an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the second quarter worth about $2,941,000. Finally, Tema ETFs LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 10.6% in the second quarter. Tema ETFs LLC now owns 19,635 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,076,000 after acquiring an additional 1,885 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.