German American Bancorp Inc. Invests $1.39 Million in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

German American Bancorp Inc. acquired a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 7,455 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,392,000.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on CRM. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, May 18th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $160.00 price target on the stock. Barclays raised Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. 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 issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $254.42.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $171.20 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. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $146.32 and a one year high of $274.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $140.21 billion, a PE ratio of 19.82, a P/E/G ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.18. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $170.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $191.20.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.58 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue 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. On average, analysts forecast 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 given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s payout ratio 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.