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

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lessened its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 2.0% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 371,001 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 7,688 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $69,255,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 410.3% in the first quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

More Salesforce News

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

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $156.97 on Friday. 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 company has a market cap of $128.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.17, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $170.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $187.96. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $146.32 and a 1-year high of $274.00.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.58 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.28 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.37%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Truist Financial cut Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Daiwa Securities Group lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Barclays upgraded Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. 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 issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $249.51.

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.