Macquarie Group Ltd. Sells 1,256,401 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Macquarie Group Ltd. decreased its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 73.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 451,257 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 1,256,401 shares during the quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $119,542,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. B. Riley Financial boosted their price target on Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. DA Davidson lowered their price target on Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Daiwa Securities Group lowered their price target on Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $259.26.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s latest quarter was strong, with revenue of $11.13 billion, EPS of $3.88, and AI/data ARR rising to $3.4 billion; Agentforce alone reached $1.2 billion in ARR, reinforcing the company’s AI growth story and supporting the bullish case. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group Bank raised its earnings expectations for Salesforce, estimating FY2027 EPS at $10.17 and FY2028 EPS at $11.07, which suggests confidence in longer-term profitability. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is getting renewed attention from market watchers, and several articles highlight that its AI pivot and low valuation could attract investors if execution continues to improve. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce is also being discussed in the context of broader software-sector weakness, with investors favoring AI infrastructure and chip names over traditional subscription software. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce announced another round of layoffs tied to its AI and Marketing Cloud teams, signaling restructuring pressure as it shifts toward AI-focused and usage-based monetization models. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Several reports note that CRM shares are near 52-week lows as investors worry the market is rotating away from legacy software names, keeping pressure on the stock despite solid fundamentals. Article Title

Salesforce Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $166.07 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $136.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.22, a PEG ratio of 1.04 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. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $180.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $206.89. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $161.40 and a 12-month high of $276.80.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during 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 company's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business 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. Equities analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. Salesforce's dividend 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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