Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Sold by Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management

Key Points

• Empirical Wealth Management cut its Salesforce stake by 37.2% in the first quarter, selling 3,070 shares and ending with 5,176 shares valued at about $966,000.
• Salesforce remains widely held by institutions, with large investors like Vanguard, State Street, and Geode maintaining major positions; overall, 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
• Analysts are generally positive on the stock, with a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a target price of $254.42. Salesforce also beat earnings expectations in its latest quarter, reporting $3.88 EPS on revenue of $11.13 billion.

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management reduced its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 37.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,176 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 3,070 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management's holdings in Salesforce were worth $966,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $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 fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $13,286,909,000 after buying an additional 659,573 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its position in Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $12,552,896,000 after buying an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $5,751,073,000 after acquiring an additional 791,345 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. TD Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Evercore reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised Salesforce from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $200.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Susquehanna assumed coverage on Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set a "neutral" rating on the stock. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, June 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $254.42.

Salesforce Stock Up 3.4%

CRM stock opened at $172.60 on Friday. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $170.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $191.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $141.36 billion, a PE ratio of 19.98, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.18. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $146.32 and a 12 month high of $274.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.58 EPS. The company's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 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 given a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's dividend 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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