Nixon Peabody Trust Co. Decreases Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Nixon Peabody Trust Co. reduced its Salesforce stake by 78.5% in the first quarter, selling 48,866 shares and leaving it with 13,388 shares worth about $2.5 million.
• Other institutional investors made only modest changes, and overall hedge funds and institutions own 80.43% of Salesforce shares.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive: Salesforce has a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating with an average price target of $254.42, while the stock recently traded at $165.94 after reporting stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings.

Nixon Peabody Trust Co. cut its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 78.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,388 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 48,866 shares during the period. Nixon Peabody Trust Co.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $2,499,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Byrne Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,147,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $3,548,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP now owns 2,774 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $657,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc increased its position in Salesforce by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc now owns 3,152 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $835,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Finally, Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. increased its position in Salesforce by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. now owns 4,239 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,123,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Guggenheim raised Salesforce from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $228.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded Salesforce from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $200.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. HSBC raised their target price on Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an "overweight" rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $254.42.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $165.94 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $135.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $173.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $197.71. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $146.32 and a 12 month high of $276.80.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.Salesforce's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. 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, equities analysts forecast 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 given a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Company 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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