Salesforce’s (CRM) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at BTIG Research

BTIG Research reissued their buy rating on shares of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) in a research report released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $255.00 target price on the CRM provider’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price target (down from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $375.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Evercore reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.21.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $187.01 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $194.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $228.83. Salesforce has a one year low of $174.57 and a one year high of $296.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $172.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.94, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a $0.44 dividend. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.25%.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Salesforce during the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Finally, Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.