Capital International Sarl Raises Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Capital International Sarl boosted its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 48.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 181,952 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 59,586 shares during the quarter. Capital International Sarl’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $43,123,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Country Trust Bank grew its stake in Salesforce by 658.8% during the 2nd quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Capital A Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Salesforce by 40.9% during the 2nd 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. Finally, Kilter Group LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at about $42,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the sale, the director owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the transaction, the director owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Evercore decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on Salesforce from $260.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $283.14.

Salesforce Price Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $198.81 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $215.86 and its two-hundred day moving average is $236.46. The firm has a market cap of $183.50 billion, a price-to-earnings 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 Inc. has a one year low of $174.57 and a one year high of $296.05.

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

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.25%.

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.