State of Michigan Retirement System Cuts Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

State of Michigan Retirement System lessened its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 244,743 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 4,500 shares during the quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $45,686,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd increased its stake in Salesforce by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $181,143,000 after purchasing an additional 24,332 shares during the period. SFE Investment Counsel boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 82.7% during the fourth quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,608,000 after purchasing an additional 7,871 shares during the period. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the first quarter worth approximately $1,004,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth $997,000. Finally, Independent Franchise Partners LLP bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth about $142,521,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on CRM shares. Citigroup upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Wedbush began coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $253.00 to $166.00 in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, KeyCorp cut shares of Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. One 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 given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $254.42.

Salesforce Trading Up 4.9%

Salesforce stock opened at $171.39 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $171.79 and a 200 day moving average of $193.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $140.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.84, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.18. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $146.32 and a 12-month high of $274.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm 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. As a group, research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

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.