Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Down 2% Following Analyst Downgrade

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s share price dropped 2% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Northland Securities lowered their price target on the stock from $267.00 to $229.00. Northland Securities currently has a market perform rating on the stock. Salesforce traded as low as $190.60 and last traded at $194.7770. Approximately 14,048,651 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 12% from the average daily volume of 12,558,088 shares. The stock had previously closed at $198.79.

CRM has been the topic of several other reports. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Truist Financial set a $280.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Salesforce from $235.00 to $210.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Roth Mkm dropped their price target on Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $282.06.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce expanded its Agentforce AI platform with new partnerships and sector moves (including a Formula 1 fan companion agent) that show progress commercializing AI across verticals. Salesforce Expands Agentforce With Formula 1 Partnership And Finance Shift
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce launched Agentforce Contact Center to integrate AI, voice and CRM — a product move that targets high-value contact-center spend and could accelerate revenue per customer if adoption scales. Salesforce Launches Agentforce Contact Center to Unify AI, Voice and CRM
• Positive Sentiment: Third-party ecosystem activity: Pimly launched a Product Intelligence solution on Salesforce’s AgentExchange, which could increase platform stickiness and extend use cases for front-office AI workflows. Pimly Product Intelligence Launch May Deepen Salesforce Platform Usage And Value
• Neutral Sentiment: Competitive/market commentary: HubSpot (HUBS) reported strong subscription growth — a reminder of CRM competition that can influence investor sentiment around SaaS growth comps. HUBS Rides on Solid Subscriber Revenue Growth
• Neutral Sentiment: Opinion pieces argue Salesforce is undervalued after recent weakness, framing current weakness as a buying opportunity if management executes on AI monetization. Salesforce: The SaaSpocalypse Created A Rare Buying Opportunity
• Neutral Sentiment: Long-form analysis and sector context (e.g., Forbes piece on CRM’s path) highlight that sentiment about AI and guidance, not just fundamentals, is driving recent volatility. CRM Stock: Path To $260
• Negative Sentiment: Short interest rose ~14.8% in February to ~21.9M shares (about 2.4% of shares), signaling increased bearish positioning that can amplify near-term downside pressure. (SEC/market short-interest report)
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst price-target trims: Northland cut its target to $229 (market-perform) and DA Davidson cut its target to $200 while keeping Neutral — fresh PT reductions that reinforce cautious near-term expectations. Northland Cuts Price Target DA Davidson Lowers PT on Salesforce

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Finally, Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $214.43 and a 200-day moving average price of $236.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $179.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm 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. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This is a positive change from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 21.25%.

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.