AIA Group Ltd Sells 47,108 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• AIA Group Ltd reduced its Salesforce stake by 24.7% in the first quarter, selling 47,108 shares and leaving it with 143,384 shares worth about $26.8 million.
• Salesforce reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $3.88 versus $3.13 estimated and revenue of $11.13 billion, up 13.3% year over year.
• Wall Street sentiment is still mixed but broadly positive: Salesforce has a Moderate Buy consensus rating, with an average price target of $254.42, though several firms recently downgraded or trimmed targets.

AIA Group Ltd cut its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 24.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 143,384 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 47,108 shares during the period. AIA Group Ltd's holdings in Salesforce were worth $26,765,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $181,143,000 after buying an additional 24,332 shares during the last quarter. SFE Investment Counsel lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 82.7% in the 4th quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $4,608,000 after acquiring an additional 7,871 shares during the last quarter. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the first quarter worth about $1,004,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth approximately $997,000. Finally, Independent Franchise Partners LLP bought a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth approximately $142,521,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CRM shares. Piper Sandler lowered Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. UBS Group started coverage on Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an "overweight" rating on the stock. Wolfe Research downgraded Salesforce from an "outperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded shares of Salesforce from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $200.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, DA Davidson reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $254.42.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.9%

NYSE CRM opened at $171.20 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $146.32 and a one year high of $274.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $140.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.18. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $170.64 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $191.20.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. 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 analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

Salesforce Company 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.