Applied Finance Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 45.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,219 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 3,485 shares during the quarter. Applied Finance Capital Management LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,118,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Rockland Trust Co. boosted its stake in Salesforce by 1,145.6% during the third quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 13,066 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $3,097,000 after buying an additional 12,017 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 98.3% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 21,455 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $5,085,000 after acquiring an additional 10,633 shares during the period. Midwest Trust Co raised its stake in Salesforce by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 187,071 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $44,336,000 after purchasing an additional 4,233 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 15.1% in the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 467,551 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $113,420,000 after purchasing an additional 61,270 shares during the period. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 42.2% in the 3rd quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 281,054 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $66,610,000 after buying an additional 83,403 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. DA Davidson dropped their target price on Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 27th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Salesforce from $200.00 to $188.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Northland Securities lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Mizuho decreased their target price on Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $280.00 target price on Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. 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's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $278.82.
View Our Latest Stock Analysis on CRM
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 acquisition, the director directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.
Salesforce Trading Up 3.7%
NYSE:CRM opened at $173.77 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $163.52 and a 12 month high of $292.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $142.18 billion, a PE ratio of 22.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm's 50 day moving average is $184.17 and its 200 day moving average is $215.65.
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 period in the previous year, the business earned $2.78 EPS. The business'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. Sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current year.
Salesforce Increases Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were given 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 was Thursday, April 9th. This is a positive change from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce's payout ratio is 22.54%.
Salesforce announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.
Key Stories Impacting Salesforce
Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:
About Salesforce
(
Free Report)
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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