Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Sold by Lbp Am Sa

Key Points

• Lbp Am Sa trimmed its stake in Salesforce by 38.9%, selling 78,379 shares and leaving 122,998 shares valued at about $32.6 million at quarter-end.
• Salesforce beat Q4 estimates with $3.81 EPS (vs. $3.05 expected) and $11.20 billion revenue (+12.1% year-over-year), and its board approved a $25 billion share buyback while raising the quarterly dividend to $0.44.
• Insiders increased holdings (directors Laura Alber and David Blair Kirk each bought ~2,570 shares), institutional ownership is about 80.4%, and analysts hold a consensus "Moderate Buy" with a $279.18 price target.

Lbp Am Sa trimmed its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 38.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 122,998 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 78,379 shares during the quarter. Lbp Am Sa's holdings in Salesforce were worth $32,583,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Salesforce by 8.1% during the 4th quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,000 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $265,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. lifted its position in Salesforce by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 4,272 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $1,132,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. BLB&B Advisors LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. BLB&B Advisors LLC now owns 57,027 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $15,107,000 after buying an additional 3,210 shares during the period. RBA Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. RBA Wealth Management LLC now owns 17,673 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $4,682,000 after acquiring an additional 214 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BCS Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth $274,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Stock Up 3.7%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $177.64 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $163.96 billion, a PE ratio of 22.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $188.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $224.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $163.52 and a 12-month high of $296.05.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The firm's revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.78 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in 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 generally a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. This is a positive change from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce's payout ratio is 22.54%.

Insider Activity

In other news, 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 acquisition, the director 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. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were 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 $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on CRM shares. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $281.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Mizuho cut their price objective on Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Citigroup increased their target price on Salesforce from $197.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Salesforce from $235.00 to $210.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $279.18.

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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