Swedbank AB Trims Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Swedbank AB lowered its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 49.8% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,054,923 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 1,045,058 shares during the quarter. Swedbank AB’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $196,922,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Strata Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Strata Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,442 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $269,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Kiley Juergens Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 1st quarter worth about $369,000. Dumont & Blake Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the first quarter valued at approximately $727,000. Walser Wealth Management Company A Ltd Liability Co boosted its stake in Salesforce by 23.8% during the 1st quarter. Walser Wealth Management Company A Ltd Liability Co now owns 2,325 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $434,000 after purchasing an additional 447 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Busey Bank raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 1,700.6% in the first quarter. Busey Bank now owns 27,135 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,065,000 after buying an additional 25,628 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce Trading Up 3.3%

Shares of CRM stock traded up $5.53 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $171.18. 4,321,807 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,921,313. The firm has a market capitalization of $140.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $173.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $197.31. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $276.80.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.58 earnings per share. 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, research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, June 12th. B. Riley Financial increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Barclays upgraded Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. DA Davidson dropped their target price on Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group cut their target price on Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $254.42.

Salesforce Company 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.