Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading 4.5% Higher – Should You Buy?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s share price traded 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 mid-day trading, an increase of 18% from the average session volume of 13,840,365 shares. The stock had previously closed at $173.60.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce led a broad rebound in enterprise-software stocks as investors renewed interest in AI-related companies. The move also included gains in ServiceNow and Workday, suggesting sector-wide buying rather than a company-specific catalyst alone. Salesforce Surges as Software Rebounds on AI Rotation
• Positive Sentiment: A three-year U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs agreement has a potential value of $1.6 billion and expands use of Salesforce’s Agentforce, Missionforce, Slack, MuleSoft, Tableau, and Data 360. The deal strengthens Salesforce’s government-cloud narrative and provides a large-scale use case for its AI agents and unified data platform. Salesforce’s $1.6 Billion VA AI Deal
• Positive Sentiment: The company’s latest reported quarter exceeded expectations, with adjusted EPS of $3.88 versus a $3.13 consensus estimate and revenue of $11.13 billion versus $11.05 billion expected. Revenue grew 13.3% year over year, while fiscal-year guidance implies continued earnings growth. Why Salesforce Led Index Gainers After Its Earnings Move
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts collectively maintain a “Moderate Buy” view, and valuation-focused commentary describes Salesforce as a potential long-term growth opportunity. However, investors remain focused on the upcoming earnings report for evidence that AI investments are translating into sustained bookings and revenue growth. Salesforce Receives Moderate Buy Rating
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce remains well below its 12-month high, reflecting persistent concerns about a software-sector slowdown, elevated AI-related spending, and uncertainty over the pace at which new AI products will generate material revenue. Salesforce’s Impact on AI Deployment

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Guggenheim raised Salesforce from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $228.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Susquehanna assumed coverage on Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $249.51.

Salesforce Stock Performance

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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $169.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $186.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $148.58 billion, a PE ratio of 21.00, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.18.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last 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. Equities research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 410.3% during the first quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.