Shikiar Asset Management Inc. Has $2.75 Million Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Shikiar Asset Management Inc. decreased its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 50.9% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 14,707 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 15,260 shares during the period. Shikiar Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $2,745,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Northland Securities decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Wolfe Research restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, June 15th. Piper Sandler lowered shares of Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $255.14.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group raised its FY2028 EPS estimate for Salesforce, signaling slightly better long-term earnings expectations versus the current consensus. MarketBeat Salesforce earnings update
• Positive Sentiment: Some coverage highlighted Salesforce as a potential pullback buy, noting analyst targets still imply meaningful upside from current levels. 5 Tech Stocks to Buy on the July Pullback
• Positive Sentiment: Investors continue to focus on Agentforce and Salesforce’s AI-driven, usage-based software strategy, which supports the long-term growth story after the latest quarter beat expectations and raised revenue guidance. Salesforce (CRM) Is Up 5.5% After Beating Q1 Targets And Raising Revenue Outlook – What’s Changed

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $156.99 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $174.59 and its 200-day moving average is $199.31. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.32 and a 1 year high of $276.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $128.58 billion, a PE ratio of 18.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced 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 return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.58 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue 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. Equities research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th will be given a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Company 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.