Zhang Financial LLC Raises Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Zhang Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 31.4% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 13,449 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,215 shares during the quarter. Zhang Financial LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $2,510,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd increased its holdings in Salesforce by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $181,143,000 after purchasing an additional 24,332 shares during the period. SFE Investment Counsel raised its position in Salesforce by 82.7% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,004,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $997,000. Finally, Independent Franchise Partners LLP bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $142,521,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.9%

CRM opened at $171.20 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $140.21 billion, a PE ratio of 19.82, a PEG ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The business has a 50 day moving average of $170.64 and a 200-day moving average of $191.20. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $146.32 and a 52 week high of $274.00.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. 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. Equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 20.37%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. Citigroup raised Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. HSBC lifted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Truist Financial lowered shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. They issued an “overweight” rating for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $254.42.

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.