What happened
Shares of customer relationship management software company Salesforce.com (CRM 2.35%) fell sharply on Tuesday. The stock declined as much as 4.5%, but shares were down 4.1% as of 12:50 p.m. ET.
The stock's pullback is likely primarily due to general weakness in many tech stocks on Tuesday.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is down more than 2% as of this writing. This compares to a 1.3% decline for the S&P 500.
Salesforce's decline comes not long after the company reported strong fiscal third-quarter results but provided mixed guidance for its fourth quarter of fiscal 2022. Revenue in the company's fiscal third quarter rose 27% year, coming in about in line with analyst expectations. Adjusted earnings per share for the period were slightly better than expected. While the company's revenue guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022 was above analysts' consensus estimate, management's view for revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2023 was slightly below what analysts were expecting.
Now what
The market seems to be bearish on tech stocks recently, as investors seem to be paring back on some investments with premium valuations amid worse-than-expected inflation data and potential rate hikes from the Federal Reserve around the corner.
But investors may want to put Salesforce stock on their watch list, as the stock has been punished pretty badly recently, falling 17% over the past 30 days. Moreover, the stock's 14% year-to-date gain is well behind the S&P 500's 23% gain this year.
