Strs Ohio Sells 25,998 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Strs Ohio trimmed its Salesforce position by 6.7% in the first quarter, selling 25,998 shares and ending with 362,578 shares valued at about $67.7 million.
• Wall Street sentiment remains broadly positive, with Salesforce carrying a consensus “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $254.42, even as some firms recently cut ratings.
• Salesforce delivered solid quarterly results, beating earnings and revenue expectations and reiterating FY2027 guidance, while also supporting shareholder returns through a quarterly dividend and a $25 billion share buyback program.

Strs Ohio reduced its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 6.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 362,578 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 25,998 shares during the period. Strs Ohio's holdings in Salesforce were worth $67,682,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Salesforce by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $8,582,000 after purchasing an additional 3,102 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $611,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $747,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 3.7% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $807,000 after buying an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Finally, United Bank lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 5.2% during the second quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,781,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Guggenheim upgraded Salesforce to Buy and argued the stock’s recent weakness offers a better buying opportunity, helping fuel a rebound in CRM shares. Salesforce Will Face AI Disruption but Stock Still Gets an Upgrade to Buy
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts highlighted Salesforce’s Data 360 momentum, AI-driven recurring revenue growth, and potential Informatica synergies as reasons fiscal 2027 revenue growth could improve. Can Salesforce's Data 360 Momentum Drive Stronger FY27 Growth?
• Positive Sentiment: Citizens reiterated a Market Outperform rating after Salesforce’s Fin acquisition and Agentforce expansion, reinforcing the bullish AI/productivity narrative. Citizens Reiterates Market Outperform Rating on Salesforce (CRM) Following Fin Acquisition and Agentforce Expansion
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles noted that Salesforce remains a popular analyst consensus pick, with a “Moderate Buy” view broadly still in place. Salesforce Inc. NYSE: CRM Given Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the upgrade-driven bounce, Salesforce has still been hit by heavy recent selling, with coverage noting it fell more than 10% over the past month and lost over 25% in June, underscoring investor concern about the pace of growth. Salesforce (CRM) Down More Than 10% Over the Past Month, Here’s What You Need to Know
• Negative Sentiment: Some commentary suggested AI expectations may be getting ahead of fundamentals, with analysts debating whether Salesforce’s valuation still fully reflects slower near-term growth. Salesforce (CRM) Stock Sees Modest Fair Value Cut As Analysts Debate AI Growth

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citizens Jmp reiterated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Barclays upgraded Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. B. Riley Financial raised their price objective on Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Scotiabank lowered Salesforce from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered shares of Salesforce from an "outperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $254.42.

Salesforce Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of CRM stock opened at $165.94 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $146.32 and a 1-year high of $276.80. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $173.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $197.94. 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 company has a market cap of $135.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.18.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 period last year, the business posted $2.58 earnings per share. 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 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its board has initiated 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 usually an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

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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