Cozad Asset Management Inc. Trims Stock Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Cozad Asset Management cut its Salesforce stake by 43% in the first quarter, selling 6,125 shares and retaining 8,120 shares valued at approximately $1.5 million. Institutional investors collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Salesforce reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $3.88 per share, exceeding estimates of $3.13, while revenue rose 13.3% year over year to $11.13 billion. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, representing a 1.0% annualized yield.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive, with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $249.51, despite several recent downgrades and target-price reductions.

Cozad Asset Management Inc. lessened its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 43.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,120 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 6,125 shares during the quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,516,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $12,552,896,000 after acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,182,951,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,363,096,000 after purchasing an additional 7,160,302 shares during the period. Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its stake 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 worth $1,028,807,000 after purchasing an additional 3,504,605 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $184.34 on Monday. The business's 50 day moving average price is $170.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $184.49. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.32 and a 1 year high of $269.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $150.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.16. 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 results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during 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 firm's revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $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. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors 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 is 20.37%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Scotiabank lowered shares of Salesforce from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Piper Sandler cut shares of Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Macquarie Infrastructure lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $249.51.

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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