Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Purchased by Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.

Key Points

• Oppenheimer Asset Management increased its stake in Salesforce by 121.4%, acquiring an additional 39,141 shares for a total holding of 71,393 shares valued at about $18.9 million.
• Salesforce's Board authorized a $25 billion stock buyback (up to 14.1% of shares) and the company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.44 per share (annualized $1.76, ~1.0% yield).
• Salesforce beat quarterly EPS estimates ($3.81 vs. $3.05) on $11.20 billion revenue (up 12.1% year-over-year), and two directors each purchased roughly 2,570 shares at about $194.60, increasing insider ownership.

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 121.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 71,393 shares of the CRM provider's stock after acquiring an additional 39,141 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $18,913,000 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 the stock. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on CRM. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Wolfe Research restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. One 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $279.18.

Salesforce Trading Down 2.6%

Shares of CRM stock opened at $176.45 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $163.52 and a 1 year high of $296.05. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $186.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $220.45. The firm 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 results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.78 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue 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. As a group, 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 stock repurchase plan 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 plans are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 is an increase from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.54%.

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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