Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Purchased by Keybank National Association OH

Key Points

• KeyBank National Association OH increased its Salesforce stake by 24.7% in the third quarter, adding 6,662 shares to hold 33,676 shares valued at about $7.73 million.
• Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of Salesforce shares; several major firms, including BlackRock and Bank of America, also established or expanded positions.
• Salesforce beat quarterly earnings expectations, reporting $5.90 per share versus the $3.27 consensus, while analysts’ consensus rating was “Moderate Buy” with a $278.98 price target.

Keybank National Association OH lifted its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 24.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 33,676 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 6,662 shares during the quarter. Keybank National Association OH's holdings in Salesforce were worth $7,731,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $11,396,844,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $2,363,096,000 after buying an additional 7,160,302 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,914,086,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $844,928,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $217.38 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $178.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.82, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $236.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $198.42. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.91 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on CRM. Morgan Stanley set a $315.00 price objective on Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Mizuho lifted their target price on Salesforce from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Evercore reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, October 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $278.98.

Salesforce 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.

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