Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Up 5% – What’s Next?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s stock price shot up 5% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $207.95 and last traded at $205.9190. 16,301,364 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 19% from the average session volume of 13,721,013 shares. The stock had previously closed at $196.14.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Favorable earnings setup: Oppenheimer and other analysts see potential upside from Salesforce’s upcoming results, while market expectations point to a possible post-earnings move toward the stock’s highest level since January. Salesforce Faces Favorable Second-Quarter Setup With Upside Potential How Much Salesforce Stock Is Expected to Move After Earnings
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Guggenheim reaffirmed a Buy rating with a $228 price target, while Cantor Fitzgerald maintained an Overweight rating and set a $250 target. The calls reflect confidence that Salesforce can capture demand for next-generation AI-powered, “agentic” enterprise workflows. Cantor Fitzgerald Salesforce Analyst Comment
• Positive Sentiment: Growth and capital returns: Zacks characterizes Salesforce as a strong growth stock, while a report highlights a record $27 billion quarterly share repurchase program. Buybacks could support earnings per share and signal that management views the shares as undervalued. Why Salesforce Is a Strong Growth Stock Salesforce Record Stock Buybacks
• Neutral Sentiment: Results are the next catalyst: Analysts are focused on revenue, EPS, and operating metrics for the quarter ended July 2026. Salesforce previously reported $11.13 billion of quarterly revenue, up 13.3% year over year, and EPS of $3.88, above consensus. Salesforce Q2 Earnings Estimates
• Neutral Sentiment: AI platform positioning: Coverage comparing Salesforce with ServiceNow suggests investors are rotating toward enterprise application software as AI investment broadens beyond hardware. Salesforce’s Headless 360 strategy and the Agiloft integration on AgentExchange offer additional evidence of ecosystem expansion. Salesforce Versus ServiceNow
• Negative Sentiment: Risks remain: The buybacks were funded partly with $25 billion of new debt, increasing leverage and interest obligations. Separate commentary questions whether Salesforce could become a value trap if growth slows or AI monetization disappoints. Salesforce Value Trap Analysis

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. B. Riley Financial upped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Salesforce from $187.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Salesforce from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. HSBC lifted their price target on Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Salesforce from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating, eighteen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $249.87.

Salesforce Stock Up 1.8%

The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $173.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $181.36. The firm has a market cap of $171.33 billion, a PE ratio of 24.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $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. Analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.37%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Safeguard Investment Advisory Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 15.8% in the 2nd quarter. Safeguard Investment Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,681 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $263,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. Nykredit A S bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $52,087,000. Hudson Portfolio Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $255,000. SkyOak Wealth LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 8.0% in the 2nd quarter. SkyOak Wealth LLC now owns 1,345 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $211,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. raised its position in Salesforce by 11.5% in the 2nd quarter. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. now owns 5,256 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $828,000 after purchasing an additional 540 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce Company Profile

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.