State of Michigan Retirement System Trims Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• State of Michigan Retirement System trimmed its Salesforce stake by 1.8% in the first quarter, selling 4,500 shares and ending with 244,743 shares worth about $45.7 million.
• Salesforce reported strong fiscal Q1 results, with EPS of $3.88 beating estimates and revenue of $11.13 billion, up 13.3% year over year.
• The company also announced a $25 billion share buyback and a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, while analysts currently rate the stock a Moderate Buy with a consensus target of $254.42.

State of Michigan Retirement System lowered its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 1.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 244,743 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 4,500 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System's holdings in Salesforce were worth $45,686,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Salesforce Price Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $171.39 on Tuesday. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $274.00. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $171.79 and a 200 day moving average of $193.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $140.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.84, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.18.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.58 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors 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 20.37%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial lowered Salesforce from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Guggenheim upgraded Salesforce from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $228.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Salesforce in a report on Thursday, June 18th. They set a "neutral" rating for the company. Barclays upgraded Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Macquarie Infrastructure lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 28th. One investment 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $254.42.

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.

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