Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Down 1.3% – Time to Sell?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s share price fell 1.3% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $229.81 and last traded at $233.36. 11,868,545 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 15% from the average daily volume of 14,026,866 shares. The stock had previously closed at $236.42.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s agentic-AI business, including Agentforce, is reportedly scaling rapidly. Some analysts argue the market continues to value CRM primarily as a traditional customer-relationship-management company, creating potential upside if AI monetization accelerates. The AI Software Story Wall Street Is Underrating
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street’s published targets imply further appreciation, with the average target cited by MarketBeat at $275.14. Articles identifying Salesforce as a high-upside large-cap technology stock could support investor interest heading into 2027. 3 Big Tech Stocks With the Most Upside Right Now
• Positive Sentiment: Director David Blair Kirk purchased 4,176 shares for approximately $999,000, increasing his direct ownership by 28.66%. The insider purchase may be viewed as a confidence signal. Salesforce also offers a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, or $1.76 annualized. SEC insider transaction filing
• Positive Sentiment: Recent fundamentals remain supportive: Salesforce exceeded quarterly EPS expectations, generated $11.35 billion in revenue, and grew revenue 10.8% year over year. Management’s fiscal 2027 EPS guidance also points to continued earnings growth.
• Neutral Sentiment: Comparisons with ServiceNow and Twilio frame CRM’s investment case around valuation, growth rates, margins and AI exposure. Twilio is viewed as the faster-growing option, while Salesforce offers greater scale and a lower valuation profile. Salesforce vs. ServiceNow
• Negative Sentiment: Technology stocks, including Salesforce, faced selling pressure as investors locked in profits after a strong rally in AI-related shares. This appears to be a market-positioning factor rather than a new Salesforce-specific fundamental setback. AMD, Intel, Salesforce, GameStop, and More Stocks That Explain Today’s Market

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research upgraded Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 27th. DA Davidson set a $225.00 target price on Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Phillip Securities cut shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $253.00 to $166.00 in a report on Monday, June 29th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $275.14.

Salesforce Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $192.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.27, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.20. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $210.22 and its 200-day moving average is $189.50.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%.The company had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.91 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.04%.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,486,958.84. This trade represents a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Andra AP fonden boosted its stake in Salesforce by 4,855.1% during the 2nd quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 168,472 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $26,393,000 after purchasing an additional 165,072 shares during the period. Security National Bank of Sioux City Iowa IA bought a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $52,000. Wellington Altus USA Inc. increased its position in Salesforce by 117.2% in the 2nd quarter. Wellington Altus USA Inc. now owns 315 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $49,000 after buying an additional 170 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 184.5% during the second quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 17,983 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,817,000 after buying an additional 11,663 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marathon Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.2% during the second quarter. Marathon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 21,267 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,332,000 after buying an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) technology and related enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data analytics and business operations through subscription-based software and cloud services.

The company’s product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud and the Salesforce Platform. Salesforce also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and artificial intelligence capabilities, including its Agentforce platform for building and deploying AI agents.

Founded in 1999, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and serves businesses and organizations across a broad range of industries and geographic markets worldwide.