Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC Raises Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC boosted its Salesforce stake by 372.7% in the first quarter, ending with 22,727 shares valued at about $4.24 million.
• Salesforce reported better-than-expected quarterly results, posting $3.88 EPS versus $3.13 expected and $11.13 billion in revenue, while revenue rose 13.3% year over year.
• Analysts remain generally constructive on the stock, with a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $254.42, even though the shares were trading around $171.20.

Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC grew its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 372.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 22,727 shares of the CRM provider's stock after acquiring an additional 17,919 shares during the quarter. Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $4,243,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $181,143,000 after buying an additional 24,332 shares during the last quarter. SFE Investment Counsel boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 82.7% in the fourth quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $4,608,000 after buying an additional 7,871 shares during the last quarter. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the first quarter worth about $1,004,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $997,000. Finally, Independent Franchise Partners LLP acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $142,521,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $171.20 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $140.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.18. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $170.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $190.67. 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 $274.00.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior 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. Equities analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.37%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an "overweight" rating on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. HC Wainwright downgraded shares of Salesforce to a "negative" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded Salesforce from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Wedbush began coverage on Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. They issued an "outperform" rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $254.42.

Salesforce Company 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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