Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Up 3.1% – Still a Buy?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares shot up 3.1% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $194.70 and last traded at $192.4810. Approximately 10,809,702 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 21% from the average daily volume of 13,748,442 shares. The stock had previously closed at $186.77.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Macquarie Infrastructure lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their target price on Salesforce from $194.00 to $173.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. 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 research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $249.51.

Salesforce Price 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 stock has a market capitalization of $157.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $171.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $183.19.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. 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 the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.58 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter 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. On average, equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were given a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 20.37%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, Persistent Asset Partners Ltd bought a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.