Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Down 3.8% – Here’s What Happened

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s stock price was down 3.8% on Friday. The stock traded as low as $211.00 and last traded at $213.9580. Approximately 6,639,728 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 49% from the average daily volume of 13,090,609 shares. The stock had previously closed at $222.41.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s planned acquisition of AI voice-agent company Cresta could strengthen Agentforce and Service Cloud, adding capabilities for customer-service automation. The deal also brings acquisition costs and execution risks. Article: Salesforce Bets on AI Voice Agents With Planned Cresta Acquisition
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research upgraded Salesforce from “hold” to “strong buy,” a favorable analyst signal that may help counter near-term concerns. Article: Zacks Research rating
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce is expanding its Coworker offering and promoting a 21-times growth claim, but the report notes that no baseline is provided, making the figure difficult to assess. Article: Salesforce Expands Coworker’s Reach, but Its 21× Growth Claim Has No Baseline
• Neutral Sentiment: The company is extending Agent Fabric to help businesses manage AI agents across platforms. Its large customer base and reported 1.2 billion daily requests suggest potential, but investors still need evidence that the AI activity will translate into meaningful revenue. Article: Salesforce Stock: The 1 Number Investors Still Need to See
• Negative Sentiment: A broader software sell-off is weighing on CRM, while S&P Global Ratings cut Salesforce’s credit rating to A from A+. S&P cited acquisition spending and a $25 billion debt-financed buyback, which lifted pro forma net debt relative to EBITDA above its previous downgrade threshold. The rating action raises concerns about leverage and aggressive capital allocation. Article: S&P cuts Salesforce to A on rising acquisition debt and buybacks

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CRM shares. Barclays cut Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “positive” rating in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, October 20th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, Argus increased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.98.

Salesforce Stock Down 3.8%

The company has a market capitalization of $176.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $240.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $198.67. 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 issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.91 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in Salesforce by 34.0% during the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 52,367 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $12,022,000 after acquiring an additional 13,278 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 11.9% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,288,199 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $984,442,000 after purchasing an additional 455,946 shares during the period. Altar Rock LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at $207,000. Private Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 1,720.9% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC now owns 32,394 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $7,437,000 after purchasing an additional 30,615 shares during the period. Finally, Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. now owns 564,855 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $129,674,000 after purchasing an additional 60,045 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.

Founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff and other co-founders, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco.