Equitable Trust Co. Reduces Stock Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Equitable Trust Co. trimmed its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 66.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,880 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 31,148 shares during the period. Equitable Trust Co.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $2,964,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CRM. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $3,182,951,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. boosted its stake in Salesforce by 924.7% in the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 3,883,610 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,028,807,000 after purchasing an additional 3,504,605 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in Salesforce by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its holdings in Salesforce by 13.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,672,684 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,211,515,000 after buying an additional 2,347,478 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $162.65 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $274.00. The company has a fifty day moving average of $172.25 and a 200-day moving average of $194.73. The company has a market capitalization of $133.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.58 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce received bullish commentary from some analysts, including Guggenheim’s recent upgrade to Buy, with the view that the AI bear case may be overdone and the stock could have meaningful upside. Salesforce (CRM) Upgraded as AI Bear Case Looks Overdone
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce also announced new product capabilities for Slackbot and Missionforce, including work with the U.S. Air Force on a $13.5 billion fleet-management system, which could support the long-term enterprise AI and government-sales narrative. U.S. Air Force Leverages Missionforce to Modernize Sustainment and Operations for $13.5 Billion Vehicle Fleet
• Neutral Sentiment: Some recent coverage highlighted that Salesforce may be “too cheap to ignore,” but those valuation arguments have not yet shifted the stock’s downward trend. Salesforce (CRM) Is Becoming Too Cheap To Ignore
• Negative Sentiment: KeyBanc’s downgrade and concerns about slower AI monetization are the biggest catalysts pressuring CRM today. Salesforce stock falls after KeyBanc downgrade on AI growth concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Broader commentary from market analysts and media has reinforced skepticism that Salesforce’s AI spending will quickly improve investor sentiment or near-term growth. Salesforce (CRM) Is Spending Billions To Broaden Its AI Offerings, But Will It Change Investor Sentiment?

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Guggenheim upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $228.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. Finally, HSBC upped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $254.42.

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.