Fifth Third Bancorp Cuts Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Fifth Third Bancorp trimmed its stake in Salesforce by 3.2% in Q4, selling 7,637 shares and ending the quarter with 229,488 shares valued at about $60.79 million.
• Salesforce’s board authorized a $25.0 billion share buyback (up to 14.1% of outstanding shares) and raised the quarterly dividend to $0.44, signaling confidence in the stock’s valuation.
• The company beat quarterly estimates with $3.81 EPS vs. $3.05 expected and $11.20B in revenue (up 12.1% YoY), and provided FY2027 EPS guidance of 13.110–13.190 and Q1 guidance of 3.110–3.130.

Fifth Third Bancorp lowered its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 229,488 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 7,637 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp's holdings in Salesforce were worth $60,794,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $23,800,353,000 after acquiring an additional 270,913 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,420,657 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $11,732,966,000 after purchasing an additional 159,739 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 1,729,440 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its position in Salesforce by 159.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $4,106,255,000 after purchasing an additional 10,636,161 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Salesforce by 11.8% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,155,512 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,695,856,000 after purchasing an additional 754,116 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce Trading Down 2.6%

NYSE:CRM opened at $176.45 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $163.52 and a 12 month high of $296.05. 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 $186.67 and its 200 day moving average is $220.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $144.37 billion, a PE ratio of 22.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The business had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce's revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued a $0.44 dividend. This is an increase from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. Salesforce's payout ratio is 22.54%.

Insider Activity

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This trade represents 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on CRM. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Barclays cut their price objective on Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Roth Mkm reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $279.18.

Salesforce Company 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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