Blair William & Co. IL Sells 62,609 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Blair William & Co. IL cut its Salesforce stake by 10.2% in the fourth quarter, selling 62,609 shares and leaving it with 552,086 shares valued at about $146.3 million.
• Other institutional investors also adjusted positions, and hedge funds and institutions still own a large majority of Salesforce’s shares at 80.43%.
• Salesforce reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results, with $3.88 EPS and $11.13 billion in revenue, while also authorizing a $25 billion buyback and declaring a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share.

Blair William & Co. IL decreased its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 10.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 552,086 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 62,609 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL owned approximately 0.06% of Salesforce worth $146,253,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $8,582,000 after purchasing an additional 3,102 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $611,000 after buying an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $747,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Salesforce by 3.7% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $807,000 after buying an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Finally, United Bank increased its stake in Salesforce by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,781,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 3.50% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $161.74 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $132.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.72, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $160.50 and a fifty-two week high of $276.80. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $179.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $205.79.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.58 EPS. 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, research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th will be given a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is deepening its push into agentic AI by acquiring Fin, an AI customer-service platform that handles queries across chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS, phone and Slack. Investors are viewing the deal as a strategic step that could strengthen Salesforce’s position in the fast-growing AI automation market. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts at firms including Wedbush, Canaccord Genuity and Needham reaffirmed bullish views, with price targets well above the current share price, suggesting Wall Street sees meaningful upside if Salesforce’s AI strategy gains traction. Benzinga article
• Positive Sentiment: Commentary around Salesforce’s strong cash generation, rising margins and a $50 billion buyback plan is supporting the investment case by highlighting its ability to fund acquisitions while still returning capital to shareholders. Yahoo Finance article
• Neutral Sentiment: Wedbush said the Fin purchase shows Salesforce is moving faster than expected to secure the AI agent market, but investors are still waiting to see whether these acquisitions translate into faster revenue growth and better returns. Proactive Investors article
• Negative Sentiment: Some coverage is focusing on Salesforce’s steep share-price decline over the past year and the concern that its acquisition-heavy strategy has not yet restored investor confidence, keeping pressure on CRM stock. Invezz article

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $225.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. UBS Group reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Roth Mkm reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $325.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $259.26.

Salesforce 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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