Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Up 4.2% – Time to Buy?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s share price rose 4.2% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $165.81 and last traded at $163.3160. Approximately 13,968,996 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 1% from the average session volume of 14,056,905 shares. The stock had previously closed at $156.66.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Guggenheim upgraded Salesforce to Buy, arguing that recent selloff has created an attractive entry point and setting a $228 price target. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Citizens reaffirmed a Market Outperform rating and $315 price target, citing Salesforce’s Fin acquisition and Agentforce expansion as supportive growth catalysts. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Several market commentaries are framing CRM as a beaten-down software name that may benefit from the July pullback, with analysts pointing to upside potential versus current levels. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage also highlighted Salesforce as an AI stock beyond NVIDIA that could surge in 2026, but this was more thematic support than a near-term operational change. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Some articles emphasized that CRM has lost more than 25% in June and is still facing skepticism around AI disruption and higher AI-related costs, which could limit the rebound. Article Title

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Northland Securities lowered their price target on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Raymond James Financial initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Barclays raised shares of Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $254.42.

Salesforce Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $133.76 billion, a PE ratio of 18.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.16. 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 company’s fifty day moving average is $174.59 and its 200 day moving average is $199.31.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.58 earnings per share. 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. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $181,143,000 after purchasing an additional 24,332 shares during the last quarter. SFE Investment Counsel grew its stake in Salesforce by 82.7% in the fourth quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,608,000 after purchasing an additional 7,871 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in Salesforce by 8.9% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,299,513 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $307,984,000 after purchasing an additional 106,107 shares in the last quarter. Eminence Capital LP increased its holdings in Salesforce by 5.6% in the third quarter. Eminence Capital LP now owns 830,536 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $196,837,000 after buying an additional 43,888 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $997,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.