Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Up 2% on Analyst Upgrade

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s share price rose 2% during mid-day trading on Monday after Bank of America upgraded the stock from an underperform rating to a buy rating. Bank of America now has a $285.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $160.00. Salesforce traded as high as $240.90 and last traded at $233.7440. 8,692,984 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 36% from the average session volume of 13,659,538 shares. The stock had previously closed at $229.13.

CRM has been the subject of several other research reports. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $236.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $222.00 to $266.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. DA Davidson set a $225.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.12.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

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

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at about $11,396,844,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,363,096,000 after acquiring an additional 7,160,302 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 28.0% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 11,724,790 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,188,666,000 after purchasing an additional 2,561,923 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $844,928,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The company’s 50-day moving average is $226.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $192.91. The company has a market capitalization of $192.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.31, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.26.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.91 earnings per share. Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. 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 anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 16.04%.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc (NYSE: CRM) develops cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software and enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, analytics, data integration and collaboration through subscription-based services.

The company’s product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Platform, Data Cloud and Tableau. Salesforce also offers MuleSoft integration technology, Slack collaboration software and artificial intelligence capabilities through its Einstein platform.