Adelphi Trust Co Invests $1.50 Million in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Adelphi Trust Co acquired a new position of 5,657 shares in Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) during Q4, valued at approximately $1.50 million, representing about 1.2% of its portfolio and its 22nd largest holding.
• Salesforce's board approved a $25.0 billion share buyback program and raised the quarterly dividend to $0.44 (annualized $1.76, ~1.0% yield), signaling management's confidence in the stock.
• Insiders David Blair Kirk and Laura Alber each purchased about 2,570 shares (~$500k each) in March, and Salesforce reported a quarterly earnings beat (EPS $3.81 vs $3.05) with FY27 EPS guidance of 13.110–13.190.

Adelphi Trust Co acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 5,657 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,499,000. Salesforce makes up about 1.2% of Adelphi Trust Co's investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest position.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Avion Wealth raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 63.3% in the 4th quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CRM shares. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. BTIG Research restated a "buy" rating and issued a $255.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $375.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $279.18.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were bought at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the purchase, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Trading Up 3.7%

NYSE:CRM opened at $177.64 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. The firm has a market cap of $163.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $163.52 and a 52 week high of $296.05. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $188.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $224.87.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.78 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter 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, equities analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This is an increase from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.54%.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.

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