Next Capital Management LLC Makes New $2.12 Million Investment in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Next Capital Management LLC opened a new position in Salesforce, buying 11,350 shares valued at about $2.12 million in the first quarter.
• Institutional ownership of Salesforce remains very high, with hedge funds and other investors holding 80.43% of the stock; several large firms, including Vanguard and State Street, also increased their stakes recently.
• Wall Street sentiment is generally positive: Salesforce has a Moderate Buy consensus rating and an average price target of $254.42, while the stock was trading around $171.20 and fell 0.9% on the day.

Next Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 11,350 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,119,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Salesforce by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $23,800,353,000 after purchasing an additional 270,913 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Salesforce by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $5,751,073,000 after purchasing an additional 791,345 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CRM. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Citigroup raised Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Macquarie Infrastructure decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Scotiabank cut Salesforce from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $254.42.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.9%

NYSE CRM opened at $171.20 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $146.32 and a 1-year high of $274.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The company has a market capitalization of $140.21 billion, a PE ratio of 19.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.18. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $170.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $191.20.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced 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. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.58 earnings per share. Salesforce's quarterly 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. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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