Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stock: PBU The Pension Fund of Early Childhood & Youth Educators Raises Holdings

PBU The Pension Fund of Early Childhood & Youth Educators increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 9.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 151,960 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,110 shares during the period. Salesforce accounts for approximately 0.8% of PBU The Pension Fund of Early Childhood & Youth Educators’ holdings, making the stock its 27th largest position. PBU The Pension Fund of Early Childhood & Youth Educators’ holdings in Salesforce were worth $34,885,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $11,396,844,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,363,096,000 after acquiring an additional 7,160,302 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,914,086,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $844,928,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $217.38 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $178.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $146.32 and a 1-year high of $269.11. The business’s 50 day moving average is $236.19 and its 200-day moving average is $198.42.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.91 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.04%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, October 20th. Deutsche Bank initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, October 12th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Finally, Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.98.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 4,176 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,486,958.84. This trade represents a 28.66% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc. is a cloud-based software company best known for customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Its platform helps businesses manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce and customer data, and includes products such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Data Cloud and Agentforce. The company also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data analytics and visualization, and MuleSoft for connecting applications and data. Salesforce’s products are used by organizations across a range of industries and are available to customers around the world.