Oak Associates Ltd. OH Sells 20,226 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Oak Associates Ltd. OH reduced its Salesforce stake by 29.1% in the first quarter, selling 20,226 shares and leaving it with 49,284 shares valued at about $9.2 million.
• Salesforce shares were trading down 3.7% at $156.97, near the lower end of their 52-week range, as the stock remained under pressure from cautious analyst sentiment and valuation concerns.
• The company recently beat quarterly earnings expectations, reporting $3.88 EPS on $11.13 billion in revenue, while analysts currently hold a Moderate Buy consensus with an average price target of $249.51.

Oak Associates Ltd. OH lessened its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 29.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 49,284 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 20,226 shares during the period. Oak Associates Ltd. OH's holdings in Salesforce were worth $9,200,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $12,552,896,000 after acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth $3,182,951,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its position in Salesforce by 924.7% during the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 3,883,610 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,028,807,000 after acquiring an additional 3,504,605 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its position in Salesforce by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $6,019,199,000 after acquiring an additional 2,669,891 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its stake in Salesforce by 13.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,672,684 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $5,211,515,000 after purchasing an additional 2,347,478 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Navatar announced a Claude-native deal engine built on Salesforce Agentforce, highlighting continued enterprise demand for Salesforce’s platform and AI tools. Navatar Launches Claude-Native Deal Engine for Private Equity and M&A Advisory Firms on Salesforce CRM
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce received an “Equal Weight” rating from Morgan Stanley, reinforcing a cautious but not outright bearish stance from one major broker. Salesforce NYSE: CRM Earns "Equal Weight" Rating from Morgan Stanley
• Neutral Sentiment: Montaka Global Investments described Salesforce as having a compelling outlook, suggesting some long-term investors still see value in the company’s AI and platform strategy. Key Catalysts Behind Salesforce’s (CRM) Compelling Outlook
• Negative Sentiment: Morgan Stanley cut Salesforce’s price target by 35% and downgraded the stock to Equal Weight, signaling reduced upside expectations. Morgan Stanley Slashes Salesforce Price Target By 35%
• Negative Sentiment: Another report said CRM’s recent downgrade reflects a “balanced” risk/reward profile, with analysts seeing no major growth inflection in the near term. CRM Stock Snags Second Rating Downgrade This Month
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce fell more than the broader market as the stock continued to trade under pressure from sentiment around software valuations and AI competition. Here's Why Salesforce (CRM) Fell More Than Broader Market

Salesforce Trading Down 3.7%

Shares of CRM stock opened at $156.97 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $170.28 and a 200-day moving average of $187.96. The stock has a market cap of $128.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.17, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.18. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $274.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $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. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CRM. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Salesforce from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Salesforce from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, May 18th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $160.00 price objective for the company. Piper Sandler cut shares of Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $249.51.

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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