Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading 1.8% Higher – Should You Buy?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) rose 1.8% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $211.07 and last traded at $209.20. 9,600,916 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 30% from the average daily volume of 13,680,841 shares. The stock had previously closed at $205.43.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on CRM shares. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered Salesforce from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Scotiabank downgraded Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Salesforce from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Two investment 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 issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $249.87.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $174.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $181.56. The company has a market capitalization of $171.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.16. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. The company’s revenue 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. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 20.37%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd acquired a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC raised its position in Salesforce by 410.3% during the first quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.