Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stock Holdings Boosted by Csenge Advisory Group

Key Points

• Csenge Advisory Group increased its Salesforce stake by 171.2% in the third quarter, ending the period with 5,142 shares valued at about $1.18 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 80.43% of the stock.
• Analysts gave Salesforce an average “Moderate Buy” rating and a consensus price target of $278.98. Several firms raised their targets, including Freedom Broker, which set a $295 target.
• Salesforce reported quarterly EPS of $5.90, beating the $3.27 consensus estimate, while revenue rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion.

Csenge Advisory Group boosted its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 171.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,142 shares of the CRM provider's stock after acquiring an additional 3,246 shares during the quarter. Csenge Advisory Group's holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,181,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on CRM shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Mizuho increased their price objective on Salesforce from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 16th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Salesforce from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Wall Street Zen lowered Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Freedom Broker boosted their target price on Salesforce from $230.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Four 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 company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $278.98.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

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

Salesforce Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $217.38 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $269.11. The company has a market capitalization of $178.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.14, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50 day moving average of $236.19 and a 200 day moving average of $198.42.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is 16.04%.

About Salesforce

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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