5 Investors Betting Big on Salesforce (CRM) Stock

Advertisement

  • Salesforce (CRM) is in the middle of a highly turbulent season.
  • The industry leader in cloud-based software recently reported layoffs.
  • Plenty of investors still remain bullish on CRM stock as Salesforce gears up for the fourth quarter, however.
A hand with pink painted fingernails holds a Salesforce sticker.
Source: Bjorn Bakstad / Shutterstock.com

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) has seen shares decline 18% over the past six months. The company has helped revolutionize the field of cloud-based software, providing customer relationship management solutions that the business world needs. However, 2022 has been a difficult year for the company, with CRM stock maintaining a slow-but-steady downward trajectory.

InvestorPlace’s Louis Navellier attributes this poor performance to the rise of interest rates as well as the strength of the U.S. dollar. As Navellier sees it, the company’s low revenue forecast will likely keep shares down:

“Earnings for the fiscal Q1 2023 were better than expected. It had revenue of $7.72 billion topped analysts’ expectations of $7.7 billion, and EPS of $1.19 better than the Street’s expectations of $1.03. But with slower revenue growth expected, CRM stock loses quite a bit of appeal.”

More recently, Salesforce reported more bad news when it announced layoffs and a hiring freeze. Last week, InvestorPlace contributor William White reported that the company had laid off “at least 90 people.” This has led to speculation that the company is facing leaner-than-expected times as the tech sector battles significant macroeconomic headwinds.

That said, Salesforce also has some good news to report. Today, CRM stock is rising on reports that Starboard Value has taken a position in the company. The prolific activist hedge fund says Salesforce has underperformed due to a “subpar mix of growth and profitability” but believes the company should prioritize increasing its margins.

Top 5 Investors Betting Big on CRM Stock

During the second quarter, 2062 hedge funds reported 13F filings with CRM stock, down from 2199 funds in the previous quarter. New positions in the stock are down 15% to 134 for Q2, but ownership percentage did increase marginally t0 76.58%. However, the put/call ratio for CRM stock is also down from the previous quarter, falling from 1.19 to 1.01. Citadel Advisors currently owns 5.12 million call options for CRM, the highest amount as of this writing.

Let’s take a closer look at the institutional investors currently taking large positions in Salesforce.

  1. Vanguard Group: 79.34 million shares. Vanguard purchased an additional 1.72 million shares during Q2.
  2. BlackRock (NYSE:BLK): 69.08 million shares. BlackRock purchased 507,481 shares during Q2.
  3. FMR: 48.97 million shares. FMR sold 11.74 million shares during Q2.
  4. T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ:TROW): 46.7 million shares. TROW added 13.48 million shares in Q2.
  5. State Street (NYSE:STT): 44.23 million shares. State Street sold 447,664 shares of CRM stock in Q2.

On the date of publication, Samuel O’Brient did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2022/10/5-investors-betting-big-on-salesforce-crm-stock/.

©2024 InvestorPlace Media, LLC