Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) Stock Now Rated “Moderate Buy” by Wall Street Analysts

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the fifty-two analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, thirteen have given a hold recommendation, thirty-two have issued a buy recommendation and four have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $278.98.

A number of research analysts have commented on CRM shares. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price objective (up from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. CLSA began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, July 20th. They set a “hold” rating and a $165.00 price target on the stock. Finally, BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $213.58 on Wednesday. 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 has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $269.11. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $237.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $198.53. The company has a market capitalization of $175.78 billion, a PE ratio of 19.47, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.24.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.33 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.91 EPS. The business’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. Analysts predict that Salesforce will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.04%.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 4,176 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the acquisition, the director owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,486,958.84. The trade was a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the second quarter worth $11,396,844,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,914,086,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in Salesforce by 130.2% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,363,096,000 after purchasing an additional 7,160,302 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth about $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth about $844,928,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc. is a cloud-based software company best known for customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Its platform helps businesses manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce and customer data, and includes products such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Data Cloud and Agentforce. The company also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data analytics and visualization, and MuleSoft for connecting applications and data. Salesforce’s products are used by organizations across a range of industries and are available to customers around the world.