Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd Acquires 6,289 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe increased its Salesforce stake by 18.1% in the first quarter, adding 6,289 shares to own 40,959 shares valued at approximately $7.6 million. Institutional investors collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Analyst sentiment remains a “Moderate Buy”, with an average price target of $249.51, although several firms recently downgraded the stock or lowered their targets.
• Salesforce reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results, including $3.88 in adjusted EPS and $11.13 billion in revenue, up 13.3% year over year. The company also paid a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, representing a 1.0% annualized yield.

Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd grew its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 18.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 40,959 shares of the CRM provider's stock after acquiring an additional 6,289 shares during the quarter. Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd's holdings in Salesforce were worth $7,646,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FAS Wealth Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 35.0% in the first quarter. FAS Wealth Partners Inc. now owns 3,312 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $618,000 after acquiring an additional 859 shares during the period. Positano Wealth Management Ltd increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 234.5% during the first quarter. Positano Wealth Management Ltd now owns 42,146 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $7,867,000 after purchasing an additional 29,546 shares in the last quarter. Farmers National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 69.2% in the first quarter. Farmers National Bank now owns 4,060 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $758,000 after buying an additional 1,660 shares in the last quarter. Wealthquest Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 32.2% during the 1st quarter. Wealthquest Corp now owns 1,190 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $222,000 after purchasing an additional 290 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caerus Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 150.6% in the 1st quarter. Caerus Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,253 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $607,000 after acquiring an additional 1,955 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Scotiabank cut Salesforce from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. BTIG Research restated a "buy" rating and issued a $255.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Piper Sandler cut shares of Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Daiwa Securities Group cut their target price on Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating, sixteen have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $249.51.

Salesforce Price Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $184.34 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $150.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $170.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $184.49. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $146.32 and a 12-month high of $269.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly 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 net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion for 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 firm's revenue 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. Equities analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 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 issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's payout ratio is presently 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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