Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Invests $3.14 Million in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI acquired a new position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 20,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,143,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Costello Asset Management INC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 410.3% in the 1st quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. Finally, Birchwood Financial Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Down 2.6%

CRM opened at $191.20 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $156.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $171.58 and its 200 day moving average is $181.69. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. Salesforce’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. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $185.00 price objective (down from $287.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Piper Sandler cut Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $249.05.

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.