Madison Asset Management LLC Buys 45,978 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Madison Asset Management LLC nearly doubled its Salesforce position in Q1, buying 45,978 additional shares and bringing its total stake to 92,577 shares valued at about $17.3 million.
• Wall Street remains mixed on Salesforce: the stock carries an average “Moderate Buy” rating with a consensus price target of $252.13, though some firms recently cut their targets and one downgraded the shares to hold.
• Salesforce reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $3.88 beating estimates and revenue of $11.13 billion topping expectations; the company also paid a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share.

Madison Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 98.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 92,577 shares of the CRM provider's stock after acquiring an additional 45,978 shares during the quarter. Madison Asset Management LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $17,281,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC grew its holdings in Salesforce by 410.3% during the 1st quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the topic of several recent research reports. Phillip Securities cut Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $253.00 to $166.00 in a report on Monday, June 29th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. B. Riley Financial boosted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Roth Capital reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $194.00 to $173.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $252.13.

Salesforce Stock Up 1.8%

NYSE CRM opened at $173.82 on Tuesday. 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 company has a fifty day moving average of $170.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $190.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $142.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.12, a PEG ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.18. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.58 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

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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