Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Sold by Rathbones Group PLC

Rathbones Group PLC decreased its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 24.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 603,572 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 198,121 shares during the period. Rathbones Group PLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $159,892,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter valued at $26,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Dorato Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $39,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM opened at $187.01 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $174.57 and a 1 year high of $296.05. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $194.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $228.67. The stock has a market cap of $172.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.94, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted 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. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.78 EPS. The business’s quarterly 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. Analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This is a positive change from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.25%.

Salesforce announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CRM. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Salesforce from $235.00 to $210.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Roth Mkm dropped their price target on Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $280.21.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Salesforce 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.