Capital International Inc. CA Raises Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Capital International Inc. CA grew its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 46.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 381,173 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 120,383 shares during the quarter. Capital International Inc. CA’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $90,338,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth $2,826,049,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 27,361.5% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,424,169 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $933,737,000 after purchasing an additional 3,411,700 shares during the period. Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the third quarter worth about $431,157,000. Capital International Investors grew its position in Salesforce by 9.4% during the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,051,119 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,753,519,000 after buying an additional 1,729,440 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings in Salesforce by 26.2% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,087,545,000 after buying an additional 1,612,413 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, the director owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 1,936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,761,499.28. The trade was a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $198.81 on Tuesday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $174.57 and a 1-year high of $296.05. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $215.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $236.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $183.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.29.

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

Salesforce Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the topic of a number of research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $281.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $260.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. One equities research 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 given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $283.14.

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.