Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA Purchases 12,568 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA boosted its Salesforce stake by 284.1% in the first quarter, buying 12,568 additional shares and bringing its total holding to 16,992 shares worth about $3.17 million.
• Salesforce reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $3.88 versus estimates of $3.13 and revenue of $11.13 billion, up 13.3% year over year. The company also issued FY 2027 and Q2 2027 guidance.
• Wall Street remains generally positive on CRM, with an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $254.42. Salesforce also recently paid a quarterly dividend and has a $25 billion share repurchase authorization in place.

Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA increased its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 284.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,992 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 12,568 shares during the period. Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA's holdings in Salesforce were worth $3,172,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $23,800,353,000 after buying an additional 270,913 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $13,286,909,000 after acquiring an additional 659,573 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its position in Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the 4th 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. Capital International Investors lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 2,669,891 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Salesforce by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $5,751,073,000 after acquiring an additional 791,345 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CRM. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Raymond James Financial started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday. They set an "outperform" rating for the company. HC Wainwright downgraded Salesforce to a "negative" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating and set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Citigroup raised Salesforce from a "market outperform" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $254.42.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $165.94 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $173.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $197.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $135.90 billion, a PE ratio of 19.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.18. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $276.80. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. 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 prior year, the company posted $2.58 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. 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, analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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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