Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Up 3.6% – What’s Next?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares traded up 3.6% during mid-day trading on Thursday. The stock traded as high as $252.42 and last traded at $250.3730. Approximately 9,730,986 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 28% from the average daily volume of 13,432,957 shares. The stock had previously closed at $241.78.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s AI products are reportedly growing at triple-digit rates, while its Agentforce platform and more than $14 billion in annual free cash flow could support profitable expansion. The company’s valuation may look attractive if AI adoption accelerates. Salesforce Is Betting Big on AI. The Payoff Could Be Bigger Than Investors Expect
• Positive Sentiment: Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “Overweight” rating, indicating continued confidence in Salesforce’s growth outlook and AI transition. Salesforce Stock Rating Reaffirmed as Overweight
• Positive Sentiment: The $5.66 billion Braze purchase could expand Salesforce’s customer-engagement capabilities and strengthen its push from AI defense toward a broader autonomous-agent strategy. Salesforce’s $5.6B Braze Buyout
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor comparisons with Adobe, Arista Networks and Snowflake highlight Salesforce’s CRM leadership, focus on profitable growth and AI-agent pivot, but do not represent new company-specific developments. Salesforce vs. Snowflake
• Negative Sentiment: Investors may be concerned that the Braze acquisition’s $5.66 billion price will increase integration risk and pressure near-term returns. Questions about contracts, pricing and customer impact could temper enthusiasm for the deal. Salesforce to Buy Braze for $5.66B

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday. Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, September 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, Yorkville Ives started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, October 5th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $290.00 price objective on the stock. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.98.

Salesforce Price Performance

The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $236.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $196.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market cap of $204.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.68, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.26.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.91 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were given a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 4,176 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. The trade was a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Aries Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Aries Wealth Management now owns 3,516 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $807,000 after buying an additional 122 shares during the period. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 558 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $128,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 9,824 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,255,000 after acquiring an additional 1,126 shares during the period. Samalin Investment Counsel LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 3rd quarter valued at about $313,000. Finally, Winter & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 3rd quarter valued at about $270,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc (NYSE: CRM) is a global enterprise software company that provides cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) technology. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data, analytics and interactions with customers across digital and traditional channels.

The company’s products include Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud and Data Cloud. Salesforce also offers Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and Slack for workplace collaboration.