Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Down 2.9% – Here’s Why

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares fell 2.9% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $241.52 and last traded at $243.3550. 14,936,492 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 7% from the average session volume of 13,987,302 shares. The stock had previously closed at $250.54.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce set a fiscal 2030 revenue target of more than $63 billion, above market expectations. Management said artificial intelligence, data products and higher customer spending should support long-term growth and help counter fears that AI could disrupt its core software business. Salesforce issues revenue target of over $63 billion for fiscal 2030
• Positive Sentiment: Several firms raised their price targets, including Stifel, Canaccord Genuity, BMO Capital Markets, Citizens JMP, Stephens and Wells Fargo. Targets generally range from $250 to $315, reflecting optimism that Agentforce and other AI products can accelerate revenue and customer expansion. Six Analysts Turn Bullish on Salesforce
• Positive Sentiment: BNP Paribas described business activity as improving, while Salesforce’s broader AIforce strategy connects CRM data with partners including Google Cloud, Anthropic, Nvidia and Snap. These relationships could increase Agentforce usage and strengthen Salesforce’s enterprise ecosystem.
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce unveiled Koa, its first internally developed AI model for CRM reasoning, and AIforce, a platform intended to make CRM data available across multiple applications. However, Koa is not yet broadly available, limiting its immediate effect on revenue or earnings. Why Salesforce’s Homegrown AI Model Won’t Move the Stock Until 2027
• Negative Sentiment: UBS said AIforce could drive usage but cautioned that its pricing is currently too high. Investors therefore remain uncertain whether Agentforce adoption will translate into substantial incremental revenue and acceptable customer returns. Salesforce’s AIforce Offering has Potential to Drive Usage but Price Point is Too High
• Negative Sentiment: The stock has rallied sharply toward its 52-week high, so investors may be taking profits while waiting for proof of near-term AI monetization. A recent system outage and mixed partner feedback on pricing add to execution concerns. Why Salesforce Stock Dropped Despite Analysts Boosting Targets

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. Argus upped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 31st. Macquarie Infrastructure reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Daiwa Securities Group dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday. Finally, Scotiabank lowered Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have given a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $275.14.

Salesforce Trading Down 2.2%

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $208.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $189.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $195.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.66, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.91 earnings per share. The firm’s 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, research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th will be issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 16.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Security National Bank of Sioux City Iowa IA purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at approximately $52,000. Wellington Altus USA Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 117.2% during the 2nd quarter. Wellington Altus USA Inc. now owns 315 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC grew its position in Salesforce by 184.5% in the 2nd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 17,983 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,817,000 after acquiring an additional 11,663 shares during the last quarter. Marathon Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Salesforce by 1.2% in the second quarter. Marathon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 21,267 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,332,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the period. Finally, ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at $25,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) technology and related enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data analytics and business operations through subscription-based software and cloud services.

The company’s product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud and the Salesforce Platform. Salesforce also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and artificial intelligence capabilities, including its Agentforce platform for building and deploying AI agents.

Founded in 1999, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and serves businesses and organizations across a broad range of industries and geographic markets worldwide.