Alps Advisors Inc. Sells 11,155 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Alps Advisors cut its Salesforce stake by 48.4% in the third quarter, selling 11,155 shares and ending the period with 11,888 shares valued at about $2.73 million. Institutional investors collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce shares.
• Salesforce’s latest quarterly results beat earnings expectations, with EPS of $5.90 versus a $3.27 consensus, while revenue rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion.
• Analysts give Salesforce a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $278.98. The company also paid a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, equivalent to a 0.8% annual yield.

Alps Advisors Inc. reduced its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 48.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 11,888 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 11,155 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $2,729,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 14.9% in the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 21,830 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $5,011,000 after acquiring an additional 2,837 shares in the last quarter. Providence First Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,065,000. Heritage Family Offices LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $397,000. Calamos Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 23.8% in the 3rd quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC now owns 323,742 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $74,321,000 after buying an additional 62,172 shares during the period. Finally, Alta Advisers Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 59.9% in the third quarter. Alta Advisers Ltd now owns 5,870 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $1,348,000 after buying an additional 2,200 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $214.62 on Tuesday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.32 and a 1 year high of $269.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $238.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $198.60. The company has a market capitalization of $176.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th were paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Salesforce's payout ratio is presently 16.04%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on CRM shares. Mizuho increased their price objective on Salesforce from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Stephens reiterated an "equal weight" rating and issued a $289.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, September 18th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $278.98.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the acquisition, the director owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This trade represents a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Salesforce Company Profile

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.

Founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff and other co-founders, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco.

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