Praxis Investment Management Inc. Reduces Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Praxis Investment Management Inc. lowered its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 12.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 22,198 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 3,251 shares during the period. Praxis Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $4,144,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $165.94 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $135.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.32 and a 1 year high of $276.80. The company’s fifty day moving average is $173.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $197.71.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The business’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $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, sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CRM shares. Citigroup upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “market outperform” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. HC Wainwright lowered shares of Salesforce to a “negative” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wolfe Research lowered Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Susquehanna started coverage on Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday. They issued a “neutral” rating on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently 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.