Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stock Holdings Raised by Private Advisory Group LLC

Key Points

• Private Advisory Group LLC increased its Salesforce stake by 1,720.9% in the third quarter, ending the period with 32,394 shares valued at about $7.4 million. Institutional investors collectively own 80.43% of the stock.
• Analysts have a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $278.98; recommendations include 4 Strong Buys, 32 Buys, 13 Holds and 3 Sells.
• Salesforce reported quarterly EPS of $5.90, beating estimates of $3.27, while revenue rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion. It also paid a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, equivalent to a 0.8% annualized yield.

Private Advisory Group LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 1,720.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 32,394 shares of the CRM provider's stock after buying an additional 30,615 shares during the quarter. Private Advisory Group LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $7,437,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $11,396,844,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake 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 valued at $2,363,096,000 after purchasing an additional 7,160,302 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,914,086,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth $844,928,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Guggenheim boosted their price target on Salesforce from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Weiss Ratings raised Salesforce from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 24th. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price objective on Salesforce from $222.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reissued a "market outperform" rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, September 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $278.98.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $217.38 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $178.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.24. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $146.32 and a 12-month high of $269.11. The firm 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 earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.33 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.91 EPS. Salesforce's revenue for the quarter 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. On average, research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Salesforce Company 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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