Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-four research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, thirteen have assigned a hold recommendation, twenty-nine have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $327.7368.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on CRM shares. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Northland Capmk downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Citigroup cut shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, December 29th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,075,567,632.20. This represents a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total value of $31,605,171.40. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares in the company, valued at $32,803,314.90. This trade represents a 49.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 157,284 shares of company stock valued at $37,274,684 in the last three months. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Tounjian Advisory Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Tounjian Advisory Partners LLC now owns 7,068 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,872,000 after buying an additional 434 shares in the last quarter. Panoramic Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $212,000. Everpar Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 29.0% during the 4th quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC now owns 2,528 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $670,000 after acquiring an additional 568 shares during the last quarter. Crescent Sterling Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Crescent Sterling Ltd. now owns 3,774 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,000,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tealwood Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.2% in the 4th quarter. Tealwood Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,036 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,864,000 after acquiring an additional 819 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $266.06 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $250.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $251.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. Salesforce has a 1-year low of $221.96 and a 1-year high of $367.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $249.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.26.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.41 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th will be given a dividend of $0.416 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 22.16%.

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.