Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stock Position Trimmed by California Public Employees Retirement System

California Public Employees Retirement System trimmed its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 25.8% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,144,702 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 745,310 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $400,352,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Byrne Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,147,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its position in Salesforce by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,548,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc raised its stake in Salesforce by 1.5% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. raised its stake in Salesforce by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. now owns 4,239 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,123,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wright Investors Service Inc. boosted its position in Salesforce by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 6,186 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,639,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. HSBC increased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $254.42.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $171.20 on Friday. 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 50 day moving average is $170.64 and its 200-day moving average is $191.20. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $146.32 and a 12-month high of $274.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $140.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.82, a P/E/G ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.18.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $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. Equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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 dividend of $0.44 per share. 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 currently 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.