Shikiar Asset Management Inc. Has $2.75 Million Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Shikiar Asset Management cut its Salesforce stake by 50.9% in the first quarter, selling 15,260 shares and leaving it with 14,707 shares valued at about $2.75 million.
• Salesforce reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $3.88 beating estimates and revenue of $11.13 billion topping expectations, while also raising guidance.
• The company remains supported by shareholder-return actions and Wall Street sentiment, including a $25 billion share repurchase program, a quarterly dividend, and a consensus analyst rating of Moderate Buy.

Shikiar Asset Management Inc. lessened its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 50.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,707 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 15,260 shares during the period. Shikiar Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $2,745,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Salesforce by 0.3% during 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $12,552,896,000 after purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings 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 worth $5,751,073,000 after buying an additional 791,345 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.6%

NYSE CRM opened at $156.99 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $128.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $146.32 and a twelve month high of $276.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The business's fifty day moving average is $174.59 and its 200 day moving average is $199.31.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 business 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 business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm 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. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's payout ratio is 20.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group restated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Scotiabank cut Salesforce from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Salesforce from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. BTIG Research reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $255.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. They issued a "neutral" rating on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $255.14.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group raised its FY2028 EPS estimate for Salesforce, signaling slightly better long-term earnings expectations versus the current consensus. MarketBeat Salesforce earnings update
• Positive Sentiment: Some coverage highlighted Salesforce as a potential pullback buy, noting analyst targets still imply meaningful upside from current levels. 5 Tech Stocks to Buy on the July Pullback
• Positive Sentiment: Investors continue to focus on Agentforce and Salesforce’s AI-driven, usage-based software strategy, which supports the long-term growth story after the latest quarter beat expectations and raised revenue guidance. Salesforce (CRM) Is Up 5.5% After Beating Q1 Targets And Raising Revenue Outlook - What's Changed

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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