Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Down 2.6% – Time to Sell?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares were down 2.6% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $231.67 and last traded at $233.30. Approximately 11,450,875 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 45% from the average daily volume of 7,878,247 shares. The stock had previously closed at $239.57.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Goldman Sachs initiated coverage with a Buy and a $330 price target — a material analyst endorsement that can support upside if the firm’s thesis gains traction. Goldman Sachs Assumes Coverage of Salesforce (CRM) Stock
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce landed high-visibility deployments: Agentforce powering the World Economic Forum’s Davos concierge app (EVA) — a client reference that validates Salesforce’s agentic platform in a prominent use case. World Economic Forum and Salesforce Empower Global Leaders
• Positive Sentiment: Partnership win: Viz.ai integration with Agentforce Life Sciences expands real‑time clinical intelligence use cases — supports product monetization and vertical expansion. Viz.ai and Salesforce Collaborate
• Positive Sentiment: Valuation/strategy bulls publish favorable takes (e.g., Seeking Alpha on FCF multiple and other long-term bull pieces) that reinforce a buy case for longer-term investors. Salesforce: Cheap 14x FCF Multiple And Agentforce Acceleration
• Neutral Sentiment: Macro/market signals — S&P futures and enterprise software momentum pieces note mixed sector flow; could amplify swings but not company‑specific news. Salesforce S&P Futures Signal Enterprise Software Momentum
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentators (video/opinion) argue CRM’s fundamentals are intact despite the pullback — useful context but subjective. Palumbo: “Nothing Broken” in CRM
• Negative Sentiment: Unusually large put buying: traders bought ~157k put contracts (≈ +144% vs. average), a strong short‑term bearish signal that likely contributed to downside pressure and elevated intraday volatility.
• Negative Sentiment: Sector AI fear: coverage arguing that new agentic tools (e.g., “Claude Code”) could cannibalize SaaS licensing and reduce demand for legacy CRM workflows — a thematic risk hitting software multiples and investor sentiment.
• Negative Sentiment: Negative headlines and takeaways (e.g., “has imploded” / “lags as software stocks react to AI concerns”) are amplifying selling momentum. Salesforce stock has imploded: Is it a bargain or a value trap? Salesforce lags in 2026 as software stocks react to AI concerns

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on CRM shares. Mizuho set a $340.00 price objective on Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Northland Capmk downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $326.50.

Salesforce Price Performance

The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $249.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $251.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a market cap of $218.60 billion, a PE ratio of 31.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.26.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.86 by $0.39. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The business had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.27 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.41 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were issued a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 22.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $258.20, for a total value of $580,950.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,075,567,632.20. This trade represents a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 150,534 shares of company stock valued at $35,636,954. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 4.0% in the second quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 87,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,814,000 after purchasing an additional 3,387 shares during the period. Grant Private Wealth Management Inc bought a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,458,000. Advyzon Investment Management LLC increased its position in Salesforce by 57.4% in the 2nd quarter. Advyzon Investment Management LLC now owns 1,884 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $514,000 after acquiring an additional 687 shares during the period. CX Institutional raised its stake in Salesforce by 78.0% during the 3rd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 43,186 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $10,235,000 after acquiring an additional 18,927 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC now owns 206,614 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $56,342,000 after acquiring an additional 16,176 shares in the last quarter. 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.