Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Up 1% – Still a Buy?

Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) traded up 1% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $259.59 and last traded at $256.2120. 6,306,035 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 21% from the average session volume of 7,984,280 shares. The stock had previously closed at $253.62.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on CRM. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Northland Securities raised their price target on Salesforce from $264.00 to $267.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Salesforce from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Macquarie raised their target price on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Arete Research raised shares of Salesforce to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $327.74.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $240.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.26. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $249.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $251.55. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.41 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 18th will be paid a $0.416 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.16%.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,803,314.90. This trade represents a 49.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total transaction of $31,598.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at $3,085,096,889. This trade represents a 0.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 159,534 shares of company stock worth $37,814,212 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $8,582,000 after acquiring an additional 3,102 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $611,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC grew its position in Salesforce by 8.4% during the first quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 22,935 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $6,155,000 after buying an additional 1,776 shares during the period. Finally, Raab & Moskowitz Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 12.8% in the first quarter. Raab & Moskowitz Asset Management LLC now owns 6,622 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,777,000 after buying an additional 753 shares in 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.