Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading 4.5% Higher – Here’s Why

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s stock price was up 4.5% on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $184.54 and last traded at $181.4220. 16,313,070 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 18% from the average daily volume of 13,840,365 shares. The stock had previously closed at $173.60.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Scotiabank cut Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Phillip Securities downgraded Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $253.00 to $166.00 in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $185.00 price objective (down from $287.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating, sixteen have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $249.51.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $170.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $185.57. The company has a market capitalization of $148.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.94, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 20.37%.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 410.3% in the first quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.