Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ Cuts Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ reduced its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 2.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 308,953 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 7,359 shares during the quarter. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $57,672,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its position in Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $12,552,896,000 after acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,182,951,000. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 159.0% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,106,255,000 after purchasing an additional 10,636,161 shares during the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 924.7% in the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 3,883,610 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,028,807,000 after buying an additional 3,504,605 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,019,199,000 after buying an additional 2,669,891 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $158.12 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $175.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $200.07. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $146.32 and a 12 month high of $276.80. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $129.50 billion, a PE ratio of 18.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter 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 expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Piper Sandler lowered shares of Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. 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. Finally, Barclays upgraded Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $255.14.

Salesforce 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.