Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Saturday morning.

CRM has been the topic of several other research reports. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Salesforce from $260.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $279.18.

Salesforce Price Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $186.10 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $187.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $223.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $152.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce has a 12-month low of $163.52 and a 12-month high of $296.05.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The firm 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current year.

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 paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 22.54%.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Aspire Growth Partners LLC grew its position in Salesforce by 1.2% during the third quarter. Aspire Growth Partners LLC now owns 3,355 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $795,000 after buying an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. grew its position in Salesforce by 3.1% during the third quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. now owns 1,420 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $337,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC grew its position in Salesforce by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,147,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Code Waechter LLC grew its position in Salesforce by 5.3% during the third quarter. Code Waechter LLC now owns 871 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $209,000 after buying an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. grew its position in Salesforce by 4.9% during the third quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 961 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $228,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: CEO Marc Benioff says AI creates more opportunity than threat and that SaaS replacement fears are overblown — helping calm investors worried about churn. Marc Benioff Says the Software Bears Are All Wrong About Salesforce
• Positive Sentiment: Management is publicly framing AI as a revenue accelerator for SaaS, saying AI will create new product and sales motion opportunities rather than simply displace subscriptions. Salesforce CEO says in interview SaaS not dead as AI creates opportunities
• Positive Sentiment: Traders are responding to management’s AI demonstrations — Benzinga cites Agentforce and “Agenticware” updates as reasons for intraday buying. Why Is Salesforce Stock Charging Higher On Monday?
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced a sizable AI initiative called “Headless 360,” signaling product road‑map investment that could support long‑term ARR expansion. Salesforce Announces Huge AI Initiative and Calls It ‘Headless 360’
• Positive Sentiment: Large investors are adding to AI bets and reports show Bridgewater/Ray Dalio has meaningful exposure to Salesforce, which can boost investor confidence. Billionaire Ray Dalio Is Betting Big on These 4 AI Stocks
• Neutral Sentiment: General investor interest in CRM remains high and analysts are debating valuation and risk/reward; Zacks flags both attention and the need to weigh fundamentals vs. AI disruption. Is Most-Watched Stock Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) Worth Betting on Now?
• Negative Sentiment: Coverage highlights that CRM is down materially YTD (reports cite ~30% YTD) as investors fear AI could undermine traditional subscription revenue models. Salesforce (CRM) Stock Plunges 30% YTD as AI Threatens Traditional SaaS Revenue Model
• Negative Sentiment: Market commentary warns investors to trim software exposure amid the Nasdaq rally, calling out potential downside for software names like Salesforce if AI pressures margins/renewals. The Nasdaq’s Historic Rally Doesn’t Mean the Risk Is Gone (CRM)

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.