Pacer Advisors Inc. Grows Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Pacer Advisors increased its Salesforce stake by 32.3% in the first quarter, adding 486,403 shares to own 1.99 million shares valued at approximately $371.8 million. Institutional investors collectively hold 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Salesforce reported quarterly EPS of $3.88, beating the $3.13 consensus estimate, while revenue rose 13.3% year over year to $11.13 billion. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, representing a 1.0% annualized yield.
• Analyst sentiment remains positive, with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $249.51, although individual targets range widely from $165 to $356.

Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 32.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,991,616 shares of the CRM provider's stock after acquiring an additional 486,403 shares during the quarter. Salesforce accounts for 0.6% of Pacer Advisors Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. Pacer Advisors Inc. owned 0.24% of Salesforce worth $371,775,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $181,143,000 after buying an additional 24,332 shares during the period. SFE Investment Counsel increased its stake in Salesforce by 82.7% in the 4th quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $4,608,000 after buying an additional 7,871 shares in the last quarter. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce during the first quarter valued at about $1,004,000. TAM Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the first quarter valued at about $40,945,000. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $997,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $184.34 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $150.98 billion, a PE ratio of 21.34, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $170.34 and a 200 day moving average of $184.49. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $146.32 and a 12 month high of $269.11.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for 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%.The company's revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company 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. On average, research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on CRM. CLSA began coverage on Salesforce in a research report on Monday, July 20th. They set a "hold" rating and a $165.00 target price for the company. Guggenheim raised Salesforce from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $228.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Roth Capital restated a "buy" rating and issued a $325.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. HSBC increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut shares of Salesforce from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $249.51.

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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