First Eagle Investment Management LLC Acquires 628,382 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• First Eagle Investment Management increased its Salesforce stake by 17% in the fourth quarter, buying 628,382 shares and bringing its total holdings to 4.32 million shares worth about $1.14 billion.
• Salesforce’s latest quarterly results beat Wall Street expectations, with EPS of $3.81 versus the $3.05 estimate and revenue of $11.20 billion, up 12.1% year over year.
• The company announced a $25 billion share repurchase program and also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.44 per share, while analysts currently rate the stock a “Moderate Buy” with an average price target of $279.18.

First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 17.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,319,206 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 628,382 shares during the quarter. Salesforce makes up about 2.0% of First Eagle Investment Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. First Eagle Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.46% of Salesforce worth $1,144,201,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Raelipskie Partnership raised its position in Salesforce by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Raelipskie Partnership now owns 5,377 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $1,424,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Planning Group LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 9.4% in the 4th quarter. Strategic Planning Group LLC now owns 29,479 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $7,809,000 after purchasing an additional 2,541 shares during the last quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc. raised its position in Salesforce by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc. now owns 1,878 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $498,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Trek Financial LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 27.1% in the 4th quarter. Trek Financial LLC now owns 7,827 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $2,073,000 after purchasing an additional 1,669 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AG2R LA Mondiale Gestion D Actifs raised its position in Salesforce by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. AG2R LA Mondiale Gestion D Actifs now owns 37,862 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $10,030,000 after purchasing an additional 2,088 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Trading Down 2.4%

CRM stock opened at $177.52 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $145.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.73, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.14. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $163.52 and a twelve month high of $296.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The business has a fifty day moving average of $186.13 and a 200-day moving average of $217.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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 cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on CRM. Mizuho cut their price objective on Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. KeyCorp cut their price objective on Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. BTIG Research reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $255.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, April 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their target price on Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, DA Davidson dropped their target price on Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $279.18.

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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