Aviva PLC Has $213.07 Million Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Aviva PLC trimmed its Salesforce stake by 4.3% in the fourth quarter, selling 35,858 shares and ending with 804,324 shares valued at about $213.1 million.
• Salesforce posted solid quarterly results, with EPS of $3.88 beating estimates by $0.75 and revenue of $11.13 billion topping expectations; revenue rose 13.3% year over year.
• The company continues to return capital and draw analyst attention, including a new $25 billion share repurchase authorization and a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, while analysts currently rate the stock a Moderate Buy on average.

Aviva PLC lessened its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 4.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 804,324 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 35,858 shares during the quarter. Aviva PLC owned about 0.09% of Salesforce worth $213,073,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CRM. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was bought at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $166.81 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $180.50 and a 200-day moving average of $207.18. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $163.31 and a 1 year high of $276.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $136.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.58 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s Agentforce annual recurring revenue has surged to $1.2 billion, up 205% year over year, suggesting its AI push is gaining real traction and could support longer-term growth. Salesforce's AI Business Is Growing More Than 200%, but the Stock Is Near a 52-Week Low. Something Has to Give.
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s acquisition of m3ter should help expand usage-based AI revenue by improving metering and billing for Agentforce and other AI products, which may open new monetization opportunities. Salesforce m3ter Deal Highlights Shift Toward Usage Based AI Revenue
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Salesforce’s stake in Anthropic has risen to about $5 billion highlight its strategic exposure to a leading AI startup and reinforce the company’s commitment to AI investment. Salesforce’s Anthropic Stake Reportedly Reaches $5 Billion as AI Startup Eyes IPO, Bloomberg Reports
• Neutral Sentiment: TitanX expanded its Salesforce integration with automated phone intent scoring and contact enrichment, which is incremental ecosystem news but not likely to move CRM shares by itself. TitanX Expands Salesforce and HubSpot Integrations with Automated Phone Intent™ Scoring and Contact Enrichment
• Negative Sentiment: Several recent articles note that Salesforce stock is still sliding, near a 52-week low, and that investors remain skeptical despite AI growth, reflecting ongoing valuation and execution concerns. Our Salesforce Stock Pick Has Flopped. We're Moving On.
• Negative Sentiment: Broader cloud-stock weakness, highlighted by Oracle’s sharp decline after earnings, is adding sector pressure that can weigh on Salesforce even when company-specific news is positive. Oracle Plunges 10% After Earnings, Salesforce Slips Near 52-Week Lows as Cloud Stocks Slide

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Truist Financial set a $280.00 price target on Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. DA Davidson dropped their price target on Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $259.26.

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.

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