Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Up 2.1% – Here’s Why

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s stock price was up 2.1% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $184.55 and last traded at $181.3730. Approximately 11,699,857 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 10% from the average daily volume of 12,998,616 shares. The stock had previously closed at $177.60.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BTIG reaffirmed a “buy” on CRM and set a $255 price target (≈40% upside vs. current levels), giving institutional backing that can support further upside. BTIG Reaffirms Buy on Salesforce
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce launched Headless 360, positioning its full platform as infrastructure for AI agents — a strategic move that could broaden addressable market and accelerate enterprise AI spending across the Salesforce stack. Salesforce launches Headless 360
• Positive Sentiment: Customer wins/expansions show traction for Agentforce 360 — travel platform Engine expanded use of AI agents and Slack, automating ~50% of chat cases, cutting handle time ~15% and improving satisfaction, which supports revenue upsell potential for contact-center automation. Engine expands Agentforce 360
• Positive Sentiment: Data 360 adoption shows strong momentum (reported ~200% ARR growth), highlighting a potential new growth driver for larger enterprise contracts and higher‑value deals. CRM’s Data 360 Momentum Builds
• Neutral Sentiment: Software-sector momentum helped lift CRM amid a broad bounce in the IGV ETF; sector flows can amplify CRM moves but are not company‑specific fundamentals. Software Stocks Finish Week Hot
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst and media bullishness (e.g., opinion pieces expressing strong conviction) supports sentiment but is not new fundamental data; it can sustain momentum if paired with continued execution. Why I Have Strong Conviction In This Stock
• Negative Sentiment: A recent CMSWire review of Agentforce highlights strengths but also gaps versus rivals (implementation complexity and feature gaps in some areas), a reminder that competitive execution and product parity risk could temper adoption speed. Salesforce Agentforce Contact Center Review

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $375.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Oppenheimer decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Salesforce from $197.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $279.18.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $168.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.32, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.29. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $187.87 and its 200 day moving average is $224.13.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $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 predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. 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 stock repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

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.