Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Up 2.9% – What’s Next?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s stock price rose 2.9% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $178.45 and last traded at $178.3070. Approximately 10,777,936 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 18% from the average daily volume of 13,177,080 shares. The stock had previously closed at $173.30.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong AI product momentum — Salesforce’s Agentforce is reported at $800M ARR with 169% growth, suggesting AI monetization could drive material revenue upside. Agentforce Adoption Rises: Can It Be Salesforce’s Next Growth Engine?
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic partnerships and capital return boost the bull case — coverage highlights a Google partnership and Salesforce’s $25B buyback plan, both supportive of long-term growth and shareholder returns. Salesforce (CRM) Stock: Google Partnership, $25B Buyback, and What Analysts Are Saying
• Positive Sentiment: High-profile endorsements — Jim Cramer publicly advised not to sell at these prices, which can stabilize sentiment among retail/income-focused holders. Jim Cramer on Salesforce: “I Would Not Sell It at These Prices”
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst debate and valuation narratives continue — some outlets lay out a valuation-reset thesis that raises fair-value estimates based on AI growth and low leverage; this frames a longer-term bull case but leaves near-term execution risk. Salesforce Valuation Reset: AI Growth, Low Debt, And A Much Higher Fair Value Case
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor/analyst notes under review — Montaka’s internal assessment and head-to-head comparisons with peers (Oracle, ServiceNow) are circulating; these are being parsed by investors but don’t by themselves move fundamentals. Here’s Montaka’s Internal Assessment on Salesforce (CRM)
• Negative Sentiment: Sector panic from ServiceNow weak guidance — enterprise software stocks plunged after ServiceNow’s guidance miss and cascade of price-target cuts; that sector weakness dragged CRM materially lower before today’s bounce. Cheap Salesforce Vs. Expensive ServiceNow: Which Stock Is A Better Buy Today?
• Negative Sentiment: AI disruption fears and price-target cuts — several pieces warn AI could displace CRM functionality or cut demand and Piper Sandler trimmed its target, fueling short-term downside risk and volatility. Salesforce (CRM) Stock At Significant Risk Of Collapsing Due To AI
• Negative Sentiment: Short-term selling and headlines — coverage noting the stock “tumbled” and ended a multi-day gain series highlights momentum-based selling and headline sensitivity in the current environment. Salesforce tumbles, ending six-day gains as AI fears weigh

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the subject of several analyst reports. Northland Securities lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $260.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $280.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $279.18.

Salesforce Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $145.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.29. 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 company’s 50 day simple moving average is $187.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $222.64.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The company 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 business’s quarterly revenue 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. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. This is a boost from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.54%.

Salesforce declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was bought at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the acquisition, 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 ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after purchasing an additional 3,102 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $611,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $747,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $807,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Finally, United Bank lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 5.2% in the second quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,781,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

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.