Swedbank AB Sells 1,045,058 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Swedbank AB cut its Salesforce stake sharply, selling 1,045,058 shares in the first quarter and reducing its holdings by 49.8% to 1,054,923 shares worth about $196.9 million.
• Salesforce shares rose 3.3% to $171.18 in Tuesday trading, though the stock remains well below its 52-week high of $276.80.
• The company reported stronger-than-expected results last quarter, beating EPS and revenue estimates, and it also authorized a $25 billion share repurchase program while paying a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share.

Swedbank AB trimmed its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 49.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,054,923 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 1,045,058 shares during the period. Swedbank AB owned about 0.13% of Salesforce worth $196,922,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Strata Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Strata Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,442 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $269,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the period. Kiley Juergens Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the first quarter valued at approximately $369,000. Dumont & Blake Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the first quarter worth approximately $727,000. Walser Wealth Management Company A Ltd Liability Co lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 23.8% during the first quarter. Walser Wealth Management Company A Ltd Liability Co now owns 2,325 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $434,000 after buying an additional 447 shares during the period. Finally, Busey Bank lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 1,700.6% during the first quarter. Busey Bank now owns 27,135 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $5,065,000 after buying an additional 25,628 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Stock Up 3.3%

NYSE CRM traded up $5.53 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $171.18. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,321,807 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,921,313. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $276.80. The company has a market cap of $140.19 billion, a PE ratio of 19.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 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. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $173.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $197.31.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The company'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 company 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, equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on CRM shares. Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded Salesforce from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $200.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Wolfe Research downgraded Salesforce from an "outperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Weiss Ratings lowered Salesforce from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. Finally, Guggenheim upgraded shares of Salesforce from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $228.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $254.42.

Salesforce 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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