Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Decreases Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lessened its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,984,154 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 53,412 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned about 0.49% of Salesforce worth $743,713,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC lifted its position in Salesforce by 410.3% during the 1st quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on CRM. DA Davidson decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Wedbush initiated coverage on Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Piper Sandler lowered Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $254.42.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.3%

CRM opened at $171.20 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $170.64 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $190.67. The company has a market capitalization of $140.21 billion, a PE ratio of 19.82, a PEG ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.18. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $146.32 and a 1-year high of $274.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. 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 analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.37%.

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.