South Dakota Investment Council Acquires 7,141 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

South Dakota Investment Council grew its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 93.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 14,769 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,141 shares during the quarter. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $2,757,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 410.3% in the first quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. HSBC upped their price objective on Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, June 18th. They issued a “neutral” rating on the stock. Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $325.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, B. Riley Financial upped their price objective on Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $249.51.

Salesforce Trading Down 3.9%

CRM stock opened at $180.95 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $146.32 and a twelve month high of $269.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $148.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.18. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $170.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $185.02.

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 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $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, analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid 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 (DPR) is presently 20.37%.

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.