Arizona State Retirement System Sells 35,403 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Arizona State Retirement System cut its Salesforce stake by 13.8%, selling 35,403 shares in the second quarter and retaining 221,319 shares valued at approximately $34.7 million. Institutional investors collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Analysts remain broadly optimistic, with Salesforce receiving a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $266.50. Recent targets range from $225 to $315.
• Salesforce reported strong quarterly results, posting $5.90 in earnings per share versus the $3.27 consensus estimate and $11.35 billion in revenue. The company also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, representing a 0.7% annualized yield.

Arizona State Retirement System reduced its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 13.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 221,319 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 35,403 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System's holdings in Salesforce were worth $34,672,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 13,260.5% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 188,085,056 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $29,465,405,000 after acquiring an additional 186,677,290 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter worth approximately $11,396,844,000. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $1,914,086,000. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $3,182,951,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Citizens Jmp reiterated a "market outperform" rating and set a $315.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $222.00 to $266.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $266.50.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of Salesforce stock traded down $10.21 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $249.03. 16,186,912 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,091,925. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $193.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $185.49. The stock has a market cap of $204.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.70, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.20. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $146.32 and a 12 month high of $269.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.91 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Salesforce's payout ratio is currently 16.04%.

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.

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