First American Bank Cuts Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• First American Bank reduced its Salesforce holdings by 37.8% in the first quarter, selling 5,451 shares and leaving it with 8,967 shares valued at about $1.67 million.
• Salesforce reported better-than-expected earnings for the quarter, with EPS of $3.88 versus the $3.13 consensus and revenue of $11.13 billion, up 13.3% year over year.
• The company also announced a $25 billion share repurchase program and a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, while analysts currently rate the stock a consensus Moderate Buy.

First American Bank cut its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 37.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,967 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 5,451 shares during the quarter. First American Bank's holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,674,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $181,143,000 after purchasing an additional 24,332 shares during the last quarter. SFE Investment Counsel raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 82.7% during the 4th quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $4,608,000 after purchasing an additional 7,871 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in Salesforce by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,299,513 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $307,984,000 after buying an additional 106,107 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,328,230 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $1,025,791,000 after buying an additional 101,191 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eminence Capital LP grew its holdings in Salesforce by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Eminence Capital LP now owns 830,536 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $196,837,000 after buying an additional 43,888 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $150.39 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $123.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $276.80. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $175.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $201.50.

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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.58 earnings per share. 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. Equities research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. UBS Group reiterated a "neutral" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, June 15th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt raised shares of Salesforce from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $200.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $257.61.

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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