Equitable Trust Co. Sells 31,148 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Equitable Trust Co. lessened its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 66.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,880 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 31,148 shares during the quarter. Equitable Trust Co.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $2,964,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce received bullish commentary from some analysts, including Guggenheim’s recent upgrade to Buy, with the view that the AI bear case may be overdone and the stock could have meaningful upside. Salesforce (CRM) Upgraded as AI Bear Case Looks Overdone
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce also announced new product capabilities for Slackbot and Missionforce, including work with the U.S. Air Force on a $13.5 billion fleet-management system, which could support the long-term enterprise AI and government-sales narrative. U.S. Air Force Leverages Missionforce to Modernize Sustainment and Operations for $13.5 Billion Vehicle Fleet
• Neutral Sentiment: Some recent coverage highlighted that Salesforce may be “too cheap to ignore,” but those valuation arguments have not yet shifted the stock’s downward trend. Salesforce (CRM) Is Becoming Too Cheap To Ignore
• Negative Sentiment: KeyBanc’s downgrade and concerns about slower AI monetization are the biggest catalysts pressuring CRM today. Salesforce stock falls after KeyBanc downgrade on AI growth concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Broader commentary from market analysts and media has reinforced skepticism that Salesforce’s AI spending will quickly improve investor sentiment or near-term growth. Salesforce (CRM) Is Spending Billions To Broaden Its AI Offerings, But Will It Change Investor Sentiment?

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Truist Financial downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Wedbush assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $254.42.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM opened at $162.65 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The company has a market cap of $133.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $172.25 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $194.73. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $146.32 and a 12-month high of $274.00.

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, beating 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 company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.58 EPS. Salesforce’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan 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 plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.