Lee Danner & Bass Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Lee Danner & Bass Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 11.2% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 24,165 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 3,042 shares during the period. Lee Danner & Bass Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $4,511,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $253.00 to $166.00 in a report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $254.42.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.1%

CRM opened at $165.94 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $135.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.18. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $173.23 and its 200-day moving average is $197.71. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $276.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous 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. Analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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 was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 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.