Cerity Partners LLC Decreases Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Cerity Partners LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 17.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 533,938 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 109,101 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $141,439,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after acquiring an additional 3,102 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $611,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $747,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $807,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Bank raised its stake in Salesforce by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,781,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $182.72 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $181.25 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $208.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $149.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.15, a PEG ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $163.52 and a fifty-two week high of $276.80. 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 quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The company’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business 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. On average, equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce announced that its board has approved a share buyback 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 often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $255.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Salesforce from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their target price on Salesforce from $250.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Northland Securities reduced their target price on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $281.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $260.85.

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.