Lee Danner & Bass Inc. Reduces Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Lee Danner & Bass Inc. reduced its Salesforce stake by 11.2% in the first quarter, selling 3,042 shares and leaving it with 24,165 shares valued at about $4.51 million.
• Salesforce reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $3.88 versus $3.13 expected and revenue of $11.13 billion, up 13.3% year over year.
• The company also has a $25 billion share buyback program in place, while analysts currently rate the stock a consensus Moderate Buy with a $254.42 price target.

Lee Danner & Bass Inc. cut its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 11.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 24,165 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 3,042 shares during the quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $4,511,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,182,951,000. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Salesforce by 159.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $4,106,255,000 after acquiring an additional 10,636,161 shares in the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its holdings in 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 valued at $1,028,807,000 after acquiring an additional 3,504,605 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its position in Salesforce by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $6,019,199,000 after acquiring an additional 2,669,891 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Salesforce from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. Bank of America began coverage on Salesforce in a report on Monday, May 18th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $160.00 target price on the stock. Susquehanna initiated coverage on Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday. They set a "neutral" rating for the company. Royal Bank Of Canada cut Salesforce from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, DA Davidson reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $254.42.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of CRM opened at $165.94 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $276.80. The company 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. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $173.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $197.71. 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 data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The business's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.58 earnings per share. 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, analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current year.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. Salesforce's payout ratio is 20.37%.

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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