Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Up 2.8% – Should You Buy?

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) was up 2.8% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $199.41 and last traded at $196.2830. 13,644,005 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 0% from the average session volume of 13,661,404 shares. The stock had previously closed at $190.97.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst reiterates bullish view: Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed its “overweight” rating and assigned a $250 price target, implying approximately 21% upside from the reference price. Benzinga
• Positive Sentiment: Agentforce momentum supports the AI narrative: Salesforce’s Agentforce annual recurring revenue reportedly surged 205% as customer adoption increased. Deeper integration of AI into CRM workflows could strengthen Salesforce’s competitive position in enterprise software and support longer-term revenue growth. Agentforce AI analysis
• Positive Sentiment: Product expansion: Salesforce expanded Headless 360 across its portfolio, potentially improving flexibility for developers and broadening the platform’s role in customers’ technology stacks. Headless 360 expansion
• Positive Sentiment: Valuation and sector rotation: Commentators described CRM as a long-term value opportunity, while investors rotated from semiconductor stocks into beaten-down software names. Salesforce also benefits from indirect exposure to Anthropic through its investment and integration relationships. Software sector rotation
• Neutral Sentiment: Upcoming earnings remain the key catalyst: Investors are increasingly focused on Salesforce’s expected late-August earnings report. The company’s latest quarter exceeded EPS and revenue estimates, but the market wants evidence that AI monetization is translating into sustained growth.
• Negative Sentiment: Beat expectations are mixed: A Zacks analysis indicated Salesforce may lack the usual combination of factors associated with a likely earnings beat. Concerns about software business models being disrupted by AI could also limit enthusiasm despite recent analyst upgrades. Salesforce earnings expectations

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently commented on CRM. Wedbush assumed coverage on Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered shares of Salesforce from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Barclays raised shares of Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $228.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Buy rating, eighteen have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $249.49.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.1%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The company has a market cap of $168.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.16. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $172.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $181.41.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.58 earnings per share. 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 analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.37%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ancora Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 90,219 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $14,134,000 after acquiring an additional 2,195 shares during the last quarter. Sigma Planning Corp lifted its stake in Salesforce by 8.7% during the second quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 18,891 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,960,000 after purchasing an additional 1,517 shares during the last quarter. GTS Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 279.1% in the second quarter. GTS Securities LLC now owns 14,081 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,206,000 after purchasing an additional 10,367 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $730,350,000. Finally, Flputnam Investment Management Co. raised its holdings in Salesforce by 145.9% during the second quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co. now owns 36,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,674,000 after purchasing an additional 21,491 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.