Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Boosts Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 34.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 53,080 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,579 shares during the period. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $9,907,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Byrne Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,147,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Mathes Company Inc. boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 0.4% during the third quarter. Mathes Company Inc. now owns 12,558 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,976,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 0.3% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,548,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP grew its position in Salesforce by 1.7% during the third quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP now owns 2,774 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $657,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Finally, Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc grew its position in Salesforce by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc now owns 3,152 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $835,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.6%

CRM opened at $152.45 on Thursday. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $146.32 and a twelve month high of $276.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $176.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $202.28. The company has a market cap of $124.86 billion, a PE ratio of 17.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.58 EPS. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, May 18th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $160.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Scotiabank cut Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $257.61.

Salesforce Profile

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.