Groupe la Francaise Sells 290,301 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Groupe la Francaise trimmed its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 82.5% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 61,465 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 290,301 shares during the period. Groupe la Francaise’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $11,374,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted 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 buying an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,182,951,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,363,096,000 after acquiring an additional 7,160,302 shares during the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. raised 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 valued at $1,028,807,000 after acquiring an additional 3,504,605 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted 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 worth $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce Stock Down 3.9%

CRM stock opened at $180.95 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $148.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.18. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $170.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $185.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company 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. On average, research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $255.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Bank of America began coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Monday, May 18th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $160.00 price target for the company. Citigroup upgraded Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $185.00 target price (down from $287.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $249.51.

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.