Sapient Capital LLC Cuts Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Sapient Capital cut its Salesforce stake by 55.2% in the second quarter, selling 2,728 shares and retaining 2,217 shares valued at approximately $348,000. Institutional investors collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Salesforce reported quarterly EPS of $3.88, beating estimates of $3.13, while revenue rose 13.3% year over year to $11.13 billion. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, equivalent to a 0.9% annualized yield.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive, with Salesforce holding a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating and a $249.51 average price target, despite recent ratings ranging from “Strong Buy” to “Sell.”

Sapient Capital LLC trimmed its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 55.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,217 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 2,728 shares during the period. Sapient Capital LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $348,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Costello Asset Management INC lifted its position in Salesforce by 410.3% during the first quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Birchwood Financial Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce Price Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $197.35 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $161.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.84, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.16. 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 stock's fifty day moving average price is $170.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $182.62. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.32 and a 1 year high of $269.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The firm's revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm 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 research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Salesforce's payout ratio is 20.37%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. CLSA initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, July 20th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $165.00 price target on the stock. HSBC raised their price objective on Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Salesforce from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Erste Group Bank raised Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, HC Wainwright lowered Salesforce to a "negative" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus 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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