Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Up 1.3% – Should You Buy?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) rose 1.3% on Monday . The stock traded as high as $195.20 and last traded at $193.89. Approximately 12,023,094 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 8% from the average daily volume of 11,131,182 shares. The stock had previously closed at $191.35.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the topic of several research analyst reports. DA Davidson boosted their price target on Salesforce from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Monday, January 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $330.00 target price on the stock. Macquarie Infrastructure lifted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Truist Financial reduced their target price on Salesforce from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $260.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.57.

Salesforce Stock Up 1.3%

The company has a market capitalization of $181.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $243.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $245.07.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released 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. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The firm had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.41 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. 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 year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were given a dividend of $0.416 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.16%.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares in the company, valued at $32,803,314.90. This represents a 49.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This represents a 22.15% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after acquiring an additional 3,102 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $611,000 after buying an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $747,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $807,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JFS Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 8.7% during the 2nd quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 552 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $150,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently 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.