Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Purchases 41,847 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Chesley Taft & Associates nearly doubled its Salesforce position in the second quarter, purchasing 41,847 additional shares and bringing its holdings to 85,183 shares valued at approximately $13.3 million. Institutional investors collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Analyst sentiment remains generally positive, with Salesforce receiving a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating and an average price target of $249.51, although some firms recently lowered targets or downgraded the stock.
• Salesforce reported quarterly EPS of $3.88 versus the $3.13 consensus estimate, while revenue rose 13.3% year over year to $11.13 billion. The company also pays a quarterly dividend of $0.44, equivalent to a 0.9% annual yield.

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 96.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 85,183 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 41,847 shares during the quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $13,345,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd lifted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 24,332 shares in 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 valued at $4,608,000 after acquiring an additional 7,871 shares during the period. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the first quarter worth about $1,004,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 2.5% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 127,739 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $23,846,000 after purchasing an additional 3,125 shares during the period. Finally, TAM Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the first quarter worth about $40,945,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Daiwa Securities Group decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Wedbush started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Macquarie Infrastructure reduced their price target on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Scotiabank downgraded shares of Salesforce from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $249.51.

Salesforce Stock Up 3.1%

NYSE:CRM opened at $192.48 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $171.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $183.26. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $269.11. The company has a market cap of $157.64 billion, a PE ratio of 22.28, a PEG ratio of 1.01 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 (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue 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. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were given a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

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.

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