Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Acquired by USS Investment Management Ltd

USS Investment Management Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 3.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 156,301 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,177 shares during the period. USS Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $29,176,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its stake in Salesforce by 24,056.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth $3,182,951,000. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 159.0% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,106,255,000 after buying an additional 10,636,161 shares during the period. Cardano Risk Management B.V. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 924.7% during 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 grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $6,019,199,000 after buying an additional 2,669,891 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the topic of several research reports. HC Wainwright downgraded Salesforce to a “negative” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Salesforce from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Northland Securities cut their price objective on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $194.00 to $173.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $255.14.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group raised its FY2028 EPS estimate for Salesforce, signaling slightly better long-term earnings expectations versus the current consensus. MarketBeat Salesforce earnings update
• Positive Sentiment: Some coverage highlighted Salesforce as a potential pullback buy, noting analyst targets still imply meaningful upside from current levels. 5 Tech Stocks to Buy on the July Pullback
• Positive Sentiment: Investors continue to focus on Agentforce and Salesforce’s AI-driven, usage-based software strategy, which supports the long-term growth story after the latest quarter beat expectations and raised revenue guidance. Salesforce (CRM) Is Up 5.5% After Beating Q1 Targets And Raising Revenue Outlook – What’s Changed

Salesforce Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $156.99 on Wednesday. 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 has a fifty day moving average price of $174.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $199.31. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.32 and a 1 year high of $276.80. The stock has a market cap of $128.58 billion, a PE ratio of 18.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its 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 the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.58 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly 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. Equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

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.