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

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRMGet Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the forty analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation, twenty-seven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $284.0571.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CRM. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $325.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Northland Securities boosted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $264.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective (down from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $210.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on CRM

Salesforce Trading Up 4.0%

NYSE:CRM opened at $199.38 on Friday. Salesforce has a 12 month low of $174.57 and a 12 month high of $304.92. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $225.28 and its 200 day moving average is $238.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $186.82 billion, a PE ratio of 25.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.27.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRMGet Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.28% and a net margin of 17.96%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 22.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director G Mason Morfit bought 96,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 139,767 shares in the company, valued at $32,803,314.90. This represents a 49.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

Salesforce Company Profile

(Get Free Report)

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.

Recommended Stories

Analyst Recommendations for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Receive News & Ratings for Salesforce Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Salesforce and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.