Calamos Advisors LLC Sells 6,416 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Calamos Advisors LLC decreased its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 2.3% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 270,364 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 6,416 shares during the period. Calamos Advisors LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $50,469,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Piper Sandler cut shares of Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, June 6th. B. Riley Financial lifted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Wedbush started coverage on Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $254.42.

Salesforce Stock Up 4.9%

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $171.39 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $171.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $193.37. The company has a market cap of $140.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.18. 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 Inc. has a 12-month low of $146.32 and a 12-month high of $274.00.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.58 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue 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. On average, research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.