Waverly Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Waverly Advisors reduced its Salesforce position by 4.2% in the second quarter, selling 5,932 shares and retaining 134,727 shares valued at approximately $21.1 million. Institutional investors collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Salesforce reported quarterly earnings of $5.90 per share, well above the $3.27 analyst consensus, while revenue reached $11.35 billion and grew 10.8% year over year.
• Salesforce announced a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, equivalent to a $1.76 annualized payout and a 0.7% yield. Analysts maintain a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating with an average price target of $266.50.

Waverly Advisors LLC reduced its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 4.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 134,727 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 5,932 shares during the period. Waverly Advisors LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $21,106,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 13,260.5% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 188,085,056 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $29,465,405,000 after purchasing an additional 186,677,290 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $11,396,844,000. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $12,552,896,000 after acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,914,086,000. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,182,951,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM opened at $249.03 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $204.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.20. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The company's 50-day moving average price is $195.74 and its 200 day moving average price is $185.92.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%.The firm's revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.91 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th will be given a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.04%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the company. Macquarie Infrastructure lowered their price target on Salesforce from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Wall Street Zen lowered Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $230.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their target price on Salesforce from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $266.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In related news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) technology and related enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data analytics and business operations through subscription-based software and cloud services.

The company's product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud and the Salesforce Platform. Salesforce also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and artificial intelligence capabilities, including its Agentforce platform for building and deploying AI agents.

Founded in 1999, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and serves businesses and organizations across a broad range of industries and geographic markets worldwide.

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