Bank of America Corp DE Invests $1.91 Billion in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Bank of America acquired 12.2 million Salesforce shares worth approximately $1.91 billion, representing a 1.49% stake. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Salesforce reported quarterly adjusted EPS of $5.90, exceeding estimates of $3.27, while revenue rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion. The stock was trading near its 12-month high at $259.29.
• Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus with an average price target of $267.12, while Salesforce announced a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, or a 0.7% annualized yield.

Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 12,218,090 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,914,086,000. Bank of America Corp DE owned 1.49% of Salesforce as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Blodgett Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter valued at approximately $475,000. Magnolia Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter valued at $799,000. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec purchased a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $69,902,000. Pointe Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth about $490,000. Finally, Odyssean LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,807,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Trading Up 4.7%

NYSE CRM opened at $259.29 on Tuesday. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $146.32 and a 12 month high of $269.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $202.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $187.76. The stock has a market cap of $213.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.20.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion during 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 business's revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous 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, equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Wolfe Research upgraded Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Wall Street Zen cut Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, DA Davidson increased their price objective on Salesforce from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $267.12.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 5,437 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 3.50% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) technology and related enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data analytics and business operations through subscription-based software and cloud services.

The company's product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud and the Salesforce Platform. Salesforce also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and artificial intelligence capabilities, including its Agentforce platform for building and deploying AI agents.

Founded in 1999, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and serves businesses and organizations across a broad range of industries and geographic markets worldwide.

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