Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Down 4.2% – Here’s Why

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares were down 4.2% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $154.23 and last traded at $154.8820. Approximately 18,328,311 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 35% from the average daily volume of 13,531,799 shares. The stock had previously closed at $161.71.

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 and AI-related gains, implying meaningful upside. Finviz
• Positive Sentiment: Truist also expressed confidence after Salesforce’s $3.6 billion acquisition of Fin, a move that deepens the company’s AI automation push and could strengthen its customer-service and agentic AI offerings. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple articles highlighted Salesforce as a long-term growth stock and a leading generative AI software name, reinforcing the market’s optimism around its AI strategy. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce’s recent earnings were strong, with revenue and EPS beating estimates, but investors may be focusing more on whether the company can convert AI investments into sustained growth.
• Negative Sentiment: A comparison piece versus Oracle suggests the contrast in recent performance may be less favorable for Salesforce, adding to concerns that CRM may be lagging peers on momentum. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Some commentary also raised unit economics concerns, which could temper enthusiasm around the Fin deal and broader AI spending plans. Article Title

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, June 6th. Finally, Northland Securities lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $257.61.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.1%

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. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $177.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $204.72.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.58 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

About Salesforce

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.