Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Falls 2% – Should You Sell?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) traded down 2% during trading on Thursday. The stock traded as low as $220.08 and last traded at $222.6650. Approximately 8,106,787 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 38% from the average daily volume of 13,116,208 shares. The stock had previously closed at $227.11.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is reportedly planning to acquire Cresta, a provider of AI voice-agent technology. The deal could extend Salesforce’s AI capabilities in customer service, though its financial and integration implications are not yet clear. Salesforce bets on AI voice agents with planned Cresta acquisition
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks upgraded Salesforce to Strong Buy, citing improving earnings prospects. Analysts’ average price target implies potential upside, although price targets are not reliable predictors by themselves. Salesforce Moves to Strong Buy
• Neutral Sentiment: A comparison with ServiceNow highlights investor uncertainty over whether agentic AI will translate into growth, despite both companies’ positioning in the market. Salesforce Vs. ServiceNow
• Negative Sentiment: S&P Global Ratings cut Salesforce’s credit rating to A from A+, citing rising acquisition-related debt and a $25 billion debt-financed buyback. The agency said pro forma net debt-to-EBITDA exceeded its prior downgrade threshold, raising concerns about capital allocation and financial flexibility. S&P cuts Salesforce to A on rising acquisition debt and buybacks

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on CRM shares. Yorkville Ives initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, October 5th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $290.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Salesforce from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 24th. KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, October 12th. They issued a “sector weight” rating on the stock. Finally, CLSA started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, July 20th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $165.00 price target for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.98.

Salesforce Trading Down 2.0%

The firm has a market capitalization of $183.25 billion, a PE ratio of 20.30, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $239.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $198.69.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.91 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 4,176 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director directly owned 5,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 3.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CRM. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at $11,396,844,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% during 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 buying an additional 7,160,302 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth $1,914,086,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $844,928,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc (NYSE: CRM) is a global enterprise software company that provides cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) technology. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data, analytics and interactions with customers across digital and traditional channels.

The company’s products include Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud and Data Cloud. Salesforce also offers Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and Slack for workplace collaboration.