Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Price Target Lowered to $280.00 at Mizuho

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) had its target price decreased by Mizuho from $340.00 to $280.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. Mizuho currently has an outperform rating on the CRM provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on CRM. Arete Research upgraded Salesforce to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Citigroup cut shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $316.58.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $184.21 on Tuesday. 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 company has a market cap of $172.60 billion, a PE ratio of 24.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a 50 day moving average of $235.29 and a 200-day moving average of $241.35. Salesforce has a 1-year low of $180.24 and a 1-year high of $329.74.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.86 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.41 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 18th were issued a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total value of $31,605,171.40. Following the sale, the insider owned 139,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,803,314.90. The trade was a 49.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,800,353,000 after acquiring an additional 270,913 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $13,286,909,000 after buying an additional 659,573 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its position in Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $12,552,896,000 after buying an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $6,019,199,000 after acquiring an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Salesforce by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,751,073,000 after purchasing an additional 791,345 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and bulls argue the pullback is overdone; several write-ups highlight Salesforce’s AI investments (Agentforce/Data Cloud), improving margins and institutional accumulation as reasons the stock can rebound. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: New commercial tie-ups expand AI/workforce use cases — Asymbl announced an expanded collaboration with Salesforce to advance workforce orchestration with AI, which supports enterprise adoption of Salesforce AI offerings. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Some analysts remain bullish despite cuts — Mizuho trimmed its price target but kept an “Outperform” stance, signaling conviction that upside remains after the pullback. This can limit further downside if upgrades/targets stabilize. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Company narrative: management pushing AI and big deals — Coverage noting Salesforce strengthening outlook with AI-led deals reinforces the view that fundamentals and deal flow are intact. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Sector reset creates valuation opportunities — Industry pieces list Salesforce among software names that now look cheap, which may attract value-oriented buyers but also keeps the stock sensitive to macro/AI sentiment. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader sector dynamics: ServiceNow insider buying is a signal that managements may view current prices as attractive; it’s a mixed-but-important signal for the whole SaaS cohort (including CRM). That could stabilize sentiment but is an indirect influence. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Near-term catalyst: weaker-than-expected revenue guidance and fears of slower enterprise spending have been cited as the primary trigger for recent selling pressure. Guidance/query risk remains the key downside catalyst ahead of reporting cycles. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Market reaction: headlines and momentum selling (Zacks coverage of the decline) are amplifying the move lower; analyst target cuts and sector panic can sustain volatility until clearer guidance or results arrive. Read More.

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.