Vulcan Value Partners LLC Cuts Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Vulcan Value Partners LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 16.7% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 164,013 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 32,790 shares during the period. Salesforce comprises about 0.8% of Vulcan Value Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Vulcan Value Partners LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $25,694,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13,260.5% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 188,085,056 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $29,465,405,000 after buying an additional 186,677,290 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at $11,396,844,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Salesforce by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $12,552,896,000 after purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler cut Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Wedbush assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $210.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $266.50.

Salesforce Trading Down 3.9%

NYSE:CRM traded down $10.21 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $249.03. 16,186,912 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,091,925. The firm has a market capitalization of $204.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.20. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $195.74 and its 200-day moving average is $185.92. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $146.32 and a 12-month high of $269.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.91 earnings per share. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.65 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

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.