Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stock: M&G PLC Raises Position

M&G PLC grew its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 515,996 shares of the CRM provider's stock after buying an additional 31,928 shares during the period. M&G PLC owned 0.06% of Salesforce worth $118,679,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at $11,396,844,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 130.2% in 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 in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in Salesforce by 28.0% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 11,724,790 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,188,666,000 after acquiring an additional 2,561,923 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $844,928,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 4,176 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 purchase, the director directly owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. The trade was a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 3.50% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.5%

NYSE:CRM opened at $214.62 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $176.63 billion, a PE ratio of 19.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.24. 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 stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $238.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $198.60.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued 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. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The firm's revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.91 EPS. 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, equities research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, October 12th. They issued a "buy" rating for the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Salesforce from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 24th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, October 20th. Finally, Stephens reiterated an "equal weight" rating and set a $289.00 price target 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 issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $278.98.

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.

Founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff and other co-founders, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco.

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