Equita Financial Network Inc. Takes Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Equita Financial Network opened a new position in Salesforce during the first quarter, buying 3,334 shares valued at about $622,000.
• Salesforce recently reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with earnings and revenue beating analyst estimates and revenue rising 13.3% year over year.
• The company also launched a $25 billion share repurchase program and recently announced a quarterly dividend, while analysts maintain a generally Moderate Buy outlook with an average target price of $255.14.

Equita Financial Network Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 3,334 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $622,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group raised its FY2028 EPS estimate for Salesforce, signaling slightly better long-term earnings expectations versus the current consensus. MarketBeat Salesforce earnings update
• Positive Sentiment: Some coverage highlighted Salesforce as a potential pullback buy, noting analyst targets still imply meaningful upside from current levels. 5 Tech Stocks to Buy on the July Pullback
• Positive Sentiment: Investors continue to focus on Agentforce and Salesforce’s AI-driven, usage-based software strategy, which supports the long-term growth story after the latest quarter beat expectations and raised revenue guidance. Salesforce (CRM) Is Up 5.5% After Beating Q1 Targets And Raising Revenue Outlook - What's Changed

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $156.99 on Wednesday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.32 and a 1 year high of $276.80. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $174.59 and a 200-day moving average of $199.31. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $128.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $11.13 billion for 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%.Salesforce's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company 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. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Roth Mkm restated a "buy" rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price target on Salesforce from $194.00 to $173.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Citigroup reiterated a "market outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Phillip Securities lowered Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $253.00 to $166.00 in a research note on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $255.14.

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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