Lafayette Investments Inc. Grows Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Lafayette Investments Inc. boosted its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 567.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,536 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,658 shares during the period. Lafayette Investments Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $2,340,000 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 CRM. Byrne Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,147,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Fred Alger Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,548,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.7% in the third quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP now owns 2,774 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $657,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc now owns 3,152 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $835,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Finally, Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. now owns 4,239 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,123,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $165.94 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $173.23 and its 200 day moving average is $197.71. The stock has a market cap of $135.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.18. 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 issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.58 EPS. Salesforce’s 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. Sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on CRM shares. Macquarie Infrastructure dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Susquehanna assumed coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday. They issued a “neutral” rating on the stock. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. DA Davidson lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have given a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.