Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC Buys New Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Segall Bryant & Hamill initiated a Salesforce position by purchasing 9,822 shares worth approximately $1.9 million in the first quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Analyst sentiment remains generally positive, with a MarketBeat consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $249.51, despite some recent downgrades and target-price reductions.
• 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 pays a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, implying a 0.9% annual yield.

Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 9,822 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,907,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CRM. Verus Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 45.4% during the 1st quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,154 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $402,000 after buying an additional 673 shares in the last quarter. GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 9.6% in the first quarter. GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. now owns 13,174 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,459,000 after acquiring an additional 1,150 shares in the last quarter. Essential Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 222.5% during the first quarter. Essential Partners LLC now owns 1,606 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $300,000 after acquiring an additional 1,108 shares during the period. FinArc Investments Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the first quarter worth $773,000. Finally, Western Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 48.7% in the first quarter. Western Wealth Management LLC now owns 14,663 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $2,737,000 after acquiring an additional 4,799 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the subject of several analyst reports. Daiwa Securities Group lowered their target price on Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. CLSA assumed coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Monday, July 20th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $165.00 price objective for the company. Wolfe Research downgraded Salesforce from an "outperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Wedbush assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $249.51.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $191.02 on Wednesday. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $146.32 and a 12 month high of $269.11. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $156.45 billion, a PE ratio of 22.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.16. The business's fifty day moving average price is $170.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $183.76.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 company 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 revenue for the quarter 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, sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.

Continue following MarketBeat

Add MarketBeat as your preferred source on Google to see our latest stories in your feed.

Add As Preferred Source