Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Up 9.5% – Time to Buy?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares shot up 9.5% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $211.34 and last traded at $209.3260. 27,149,570 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 103% from the average session volume of 13,386,043 shares. The stock had previously closed at $191.10.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s latest quarter came in ahead of expectations, with earnings and revenue both beating estimates, reinforcing the view that demand remains solid and helping support the stock’s recent rebound.
• Positive Sentiment: Several articles highlighted Salesforce’s AI push, including its partnership/investment activity around Anthropic and Contentful, which investors see as expanding the company’s long-term product moat and monetization potential.
• Positive Sentiment: Market commentary pointed to a bullish technical setup, with the stock breaking out of a consolidation pattern and reclaiming key moving averages, suggesting momentum buyers may continue to support the shares.
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce management discussed the business at the Bank of America Global Technology Conference, which kept investor focus on execution, AI initiatives, and the outlook for the second half of the year.
• Neutral Sentiment: While some analysts remained constructive, at least one firm trimmed its price target after the quarter, indicating that expectations are still mixed even after the earnings beat.
• Negative Sentiment: Bearish commentary suggested the stock is near resistance and could face more downside if investors decide the recent move has gone too far too fast.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $252.00 to $236.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $255.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $257.97.

Salesforce Price Performance

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $181.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $210.11. The stock has a market cap of $164.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.16. 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 data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.58 EPS. 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, equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the firm’s 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 acquisition, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rockland Trust Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1,145.6% during the third quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 13,066 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,097,000 after buying an additional 12,017 shares in the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 98.3% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 21,455 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,085,000 after acquiring an additional 10,633 shares in the last quarter. Midwest Trust Co increased its position in Salesforce by 2.3% during the third quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 187,071 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $44,336,000 after acquiring an additional 4,233 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 64.2% in the 3rd quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 30,111 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $7,149,000 after purchasing an additional 11,777 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alta Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 1,104.7% during the 3rd quarter. Alta Capital Management LLC now owns 13,493 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,198,000 after purchasing an additional 12,373 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.