Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Reduces Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lowered its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 2.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 371,001 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 7,688 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $69,255,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the third quarter worth $28,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Navatar announced a Claude-native deal engine built on Salesforce Agentforce, highlighting continued enterprise demand for Salesforce’s platform and AI tools. Navatar Launches Claude-Native Deal Engine for Private Equity and M&A Advisory Firms on Salesforce CRM
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce received an “Equal Weight” rating from Morgan Stanley, reinforcing a cautious but not outright bearish stance from one major broker. Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Earns “Equal Weight” Rating from Morgan Stanley
• Neutral Sentiment: Montaka Global Investments described Salesforce as having a compelling outlook, suggesting some long-term investors still see value in the company’s AI and platform strategy. Key Catalysts Behind Salesforce’s (CRM) Compelling Outlook
• Negative Sentiment: Morgan Stanley cut Salesforce’s price target by 35% and downgraded the stock to Equal Weight, signaling reduced upside expectations. Morgan Stanley Slashes Salesforce Price Target By 35%
• Negative Sentiment: Another report said CRM’s recent downgrade reflects a “balanced” risk/reward profile, with analysts seeing no major growth inflection in the near term. CRM Stock Snags Second Rating Downgrade This Month
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce fell more than the broader market as the stock continued to trade under pressure from sentiment around software valuations and AI competition. Here’s Why Salesforce (CRM) Fell More Than Broader Market

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. DA Davidson dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, June 12th. Phillip Securities downgraded Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $253.00 to $166.00 in a report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $185.00 target price (down from $287.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $249.51.

Salesforce Trading Down 3.7%

NYSE CRM opened at $156.97 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $128.56 billion, a PE ratio of 18.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.18. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $146.32 and a 52 week high of $274.00. 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 company has a 50 day moving average price of $170.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $187.96.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.58 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders 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 1.1%. Salesforce’s dividend 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.