Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Down 3.5% After Analyst Downgrade

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) dropped 3.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Citigroup lowered their price target on the stock from $200.00 to $188.00. Citigroup currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Salesforce traded as low as $170.58 and last traded at $171.2790. Approximately 10,183,071 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 21% from the average daily volume of 12,910,783 shares. The stock had previously closed at $177.49.

CRM has been the topic of several other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Truist Financial set a $280.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $281.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.82.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction 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 trade represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased 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 owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Negative Sentiment: Citigroup cut its price target on Salesforce to $188 from $200 and kept a neutral rating, signaling limited near-term upside and reinforcing a cautious view on the stock. Benzinga
• Negative Sentiment: Wells Fargo reiterated a hold rating on Salesforce, adding to the theme that analysts see the shares as fairly valued to slightly pressured in the near term. The Globe and Mail
• Neutral Sentiment: New research highlighting inefficiencies in the Salesforce delivery lifecycle may be a longer-term ecosystem concern, but it does not directly change Salesforce’s fundamentals or near-term outlook. GlobeNewswire
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage on Salesforce’s discounted valuation, strong cash flow, and AI initiatives like Agentforce and Data 360 supports the bull case, but these pieces read more like valuation commentary than a fresh catalyst. Zacks
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s strong free cash flow remains a support for shareholder returns and AI investment, which could help limit downside if growth initiatives continue to gain traction. Zacks

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Aspire Growth Partners LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Aspire Growth Partners LLC now owns 3,355 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $795,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,147,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Mathes Company Inc. increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Mathes Company Inc. now owns 12,558 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,976,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,548,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Beacon Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,372 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $325,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $140.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $186.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $217.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.78 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. This is a positive change from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 22.54%.

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

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.