Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super Purchases New Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 115,735 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $21,604,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% in 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 last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,182,951,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 924.7% during the 4th 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. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its position in Salesforce by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,672,684 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $5,211,515,000 after purchasing an additional 2,347,478 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $172.60 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $170.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $191.34. The stock has a market cap of $141.36 billion, a PE ratio of 19.98, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.18. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $146.32 and a 1-year high of $274.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter 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. As a group, analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. HC Wainwright cut shares of Salesforce to a "negative" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Salesforce from an "outperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $254.42.

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.

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.