Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Up 2% – Time to Buy?

Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) were up 2% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $184.45 and last traded at $184.3430. 8,398,615 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 39% from the average session volume of 13,830,417 shares. The stock had previously closed at $180.71.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $194.00 to $173.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, HSBC lifted their target price on Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating, sixteen have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $249.51.

Salesforce Stock Up 2.0%

The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $170.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $185.02. The company has a market capitalization of $150.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.34, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm 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. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $181,143,000 after acquiring an additional 24,332 shares during the last quarter. SFE Investment Counsel grew its position in Salesforce by 82.7% during the 4th quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,608,000 after acquiring an additional 7,871 shares during the last quarter. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 1st quarter worth about $1,004,000. TAM Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 1st quarter worth about $40,945,000. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $997,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by 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.