Whittier Trust Co. Sells 4,433 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Whittier Trust Co. trimmed its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 14.8% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,480 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 4,433 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $4,715,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Byrne Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,147,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,548,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP increased its stake in Salesforce by 1.7% in the third quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP now owns 2,774 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $657,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc increased its stake in Salesforce by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc now owns 3,152 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $835,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. raised its position in Salesforce by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. now owns 4,239 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,123,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Phillip Securities downgraded Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $253.00 to $166.00 in a report on Monday, June 29th. Daiwa Securities Group decreased their target price on Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. KeyCorp dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $254.42.

Salesforce Trading Up 2.8%

NYSE CRM traded up $4.61 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $170.26. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,346,082 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,914,153. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $173.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $197.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $146.32 and a 52 week high of $276.80. The stock has a market cap of $139.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.18.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors 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 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

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.