Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-five ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twelve have issued a hold recommendation, twenty-eight have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $254.4211.

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CRM. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, June 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. B. Riley Financial lifted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. UBS Group initiated coverage on Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an “overweight” rating for the company. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $23,800,353,000 after buying an additional 270,913 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Salesforce by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,286,909,000 after acquiring an additional 659,573 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its position in Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $12,552,896,000 after acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,751,073,000 after purchasing an additional 791,345 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Up 2.8%

Shares of NYSE:CRM traded up $4.62 on Thursday, reaching $170.27. The company had a trading volume of 3,505,279 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,914,153. The firm has a market capitalization of $139.45 billion, a PE ratio of 19.71, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Salesforce has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $276.80. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $173.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $197.31.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. 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, analysts expect that Salesforce will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid 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 dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.