Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Sets New 1-Year Low – Here’s Why

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $160.50 and last traded at $161.7430, with a volume of 16366493 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $164.55.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded Salesforce to buy from neutral and set a $200 price target, citing valuation appeal and potential AI-driven upside. Read More
• Positive Sentiment: Truist reiterated confidence in Salesforce after its $3.6 billion Fin acquisition, viewing the deal as another step in expanding its AI automation and customer-agent capabilities. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple articles highlighted Salesforce as a long-term growth stock, with analysts pointing to its AI platform, Agentforce, and ongoing product expansion as reasons for optimism. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce’s latest AI and acquisition story continues to attract attention, including coverage of the Fin deal and a new partnership announcement, which could support the long-term growth narrative if execution remains strong. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Other commentary remained cautious, with UBS keeping a neutral rating and some analysts cutting fair value estimates amid questions about AI monetization, unit economics, and growth reacceleration. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: A comparison piece against Oracle underscored that Salesforce’s recent earnings and outlook have not been viewed as strongly as some peers, reinforcing investor concern about near-term performance versus other software names. Article Title

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $255.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Mizuho reduced their price target on Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $194.00 to $173.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, June 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $257.61.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The business has a 50-day moving average price of $177.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $204.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $124.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.55, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.58 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Salesforce by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,800,353,000 after purchasing an additional 270,913 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,286,909,000 after buying an additional 659,573 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $12,552,896,000 after buying an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $6,019,199,000 after buying an additional 2,669,891 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,751,073,000 after buying an additional 791,345 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.