Salesforce Inc. $CRM Holdings Raised by Capital World Investors

Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 159.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 10,636,161 shares during the period. Capital World Investors owned about 1.82% of Salesforce worth $4,106,255,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CRM. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Country Trust Bank grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 658.8% during the 2nd quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. Kilter Group LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth approximately $42,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 40.9% during the second quarter. Capital A Wealth Management LLC now owns 155 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on CRM shares. Wall Street Zen raised Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 28th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $375.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $283.14.

Salesforce Stock Down 1.6%

NYSE:CRM opened at $198.81 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $215.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $236.46. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $174.57 and a 52-week high of $296.05. The company has a market cap of $183.50 billion, a PE ratio of 25.46, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.78 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is a boost from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 21.25%.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,742,271.30. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 1,936 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,761,499.28. The trade was a 22.15% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Company 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.