Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stock Holdings Lessened by Rathbones Group PLC

Rathbones Group PLC reduced its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 67.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 196,806 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 406,766 shares during the quarter. Rathbones Group PLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $36,738,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. 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 shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC increased its stake in shares of 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 during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CRM. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. UBS Group reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Citigroup upgraded Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $185.00 price target (down from $287.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Two equities 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 given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $249.51.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $184.34 on Monday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $150.98 billion, a PE ratio of 21.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.18. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.32 and a 1 year high of $269.11. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $170.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $184.49.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted 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. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The company had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.58 earnings per share. The business’s 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. Analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a $0.44 dividend. 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 (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.