United Asset Strategies Inc. Acquires 4,504 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• United Asset Strategies Inc. increased its Salesforce stake by 415.9% in Q1, buying 4,504 additional shares to bring its total to 5,587 shares worth about $1.04 million.
• Institutional interest in Salesforce remains high, with 80.43% of the stock owned by institutional investors and several other funds also adding to their positions.
• Salesforce reported strong quarterly results, beating EPS and revenue estimates, while analysts currently assign the stock a Moderate Buy rating with an average price target of $254.42.

United Asset Strategies Inc. lifted its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 415.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,587 shares of the CRM provider's stock after acquiring an additional 4,504 shares during the period. United Asset Strategies Inc.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,043,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd raised its holdings in Salesforce by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $181,143,000 after acquiring an additional 24,332 shares during the period. SFE Investment Counsel raised its stake in Salesforce by 82.7% in the fourth quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $4,608,000 after purchasing an additional 7,871 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,299,513 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $307,984,000 after acquiring an additional 106,107 shares in the last quarter. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce during the first quarter worth about $1,004,000. Finally, Eminence Capital LP lifted its stake in Salesforce by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Eminence Capital LP now owns 830,536 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $196,837,000 after purchasing an additional 43,888 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on CRM shares. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, May 18th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $160.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Salesforce from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "sell (d+)" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut Salesforce from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. Finally, BTIG Research reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $255.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $254.42.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $169.41 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $172.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $196.06. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $276.80. The firm has a market cap of $138.75 billion, a PE ratio of 19.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.58 EPS. The business'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. Equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback 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 repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were given 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 yield of 1.0%. Salesforce's payout ratio is 20.37%.

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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