Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Purchases 28,669 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Sequoia Financial Advisors increased its Salesforce stake by 8.7% in the first quarter, buying 28,669 additional shares and lifting its position to 358,400 shares valued at about $66.9 million.
• Salesforce shares rose 0.5% to $163.34, while the stock remains well below its 52-week high of $274 and trades under both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.
• The company posted better-than-expected earnings for the quarter, authorized a $25 billion share buyback, and continues to pay a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, though analysts are split with a consensus rating of Moderate Buy.

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 8.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 358,400 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 28,669 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $66,903,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.5%

NYSE CRM traded up $0.84 on Friday, hitting $163.34. The stock had a trading volume of 8,316,028 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,336,670. The business's fifty day moving average price is $171.89 and its 200 day moving average price is $194.51. The stock has a market cap of $133.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.18. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $274.00.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm 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 firm'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. Equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised shares of Salesforce from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Scotiabank cut Salesforce from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. DA Davidson cut their price target on Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $254.42.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced a $1 billion investment in Switzerland over five years to expand adoption of agentic AI, reinforcing its commitment to AI-led growth and potentially strengthening its international enterprise relationships.
• Positive Sentiment: A bullish deep-dive argued Salesforce is trading at a depressed valuation, with strong free-cash-flow generation and a large debt-funded buyback that reduced share count by more than 10%, signaling management confidence in the business.
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce also unveiled MCP-powered capabilities for Slackbot, which could improve product usefulness and customer engagement, but the market may need proof that these features translate into faster growth.
• Neutral Sentiment: Triveni Power Transmission’s partnership with Salesforce for customer engagement in manufacturing adds another example of industry adoption, though the near-term financial impact appears limited.
• Negative Sentiment: KeyBanc’s downgrade and slightly lower earnings forecast added to investor skepticism that Agentforce will become a major growth catalyst soon.
• Negative Sentiment: Several market commentaries highlighted that CRM has been a weak performer over the past year, and the recent pullback suggests investors remain cautious despite its lower valuation.

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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