Bank of America Corp DE Buys 2,561,923 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Bank of America increased its Salesforce stake by 28% in the first quarter, buying 2.56 million additional shares and bringing its holdings to 11.72 million shares valued at approximately $2.19 billion.
• Salesforce reported quarterly EPS of $3.88, beating estimates of $3.13, while revenue rose 13.3% year over year to $11.13 billion. The company also paid a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, equivalent to a 1.0% annual yield.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive, with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and a $249.51 target price, although several firms recently downgraded the stock to “Hold.” Institutional investors own 80.43% of Salesforce.

Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 28.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 11,724,790 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,561,923 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE owned 1.43% of Salesforce worth $2,188,666,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $181,143,000 after purchasing an additional 24,332 shares during the last quarter. SFE Investment Counsel grew its stake in Salesforce by 82.7% in the fourth quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $4,608,000 after purchasing an additional 7,871 shares in the last quarter. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce in the first quarter valued at about $1,004,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $997,000. Finally, TAM Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the first quarter valued at approximately $40,945,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wolfe Research downgraded Salesforce from an "outperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. UBS Group reissued an "equal weight" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Truist Financial downgraded shares of Salesforce from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, CLSA began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, July 20th. They set a "hold" rating and a $165.00 target price for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $249.51.

Salesforce Trading Down 3.9%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $180.95 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $170.26 and a 200-day moving average of $185.02. 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 firm has a market cap of $148.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.18. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $146.32 and a twelve month high of $269.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business 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. As a group, analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. 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.

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