Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC Grows Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Stratos Wealth Advisors increased its stake in Salesforce by 9.3% in Q4, buying an additional 3,624 shares to own 42,724 shares valued at about $11.32 million.
• Salesforce reported a Q4 earnings beat with $3.81 EPS vs. $3.05 expected and revenue of $11.20 billion (up 12.1% year-over-year), and set FY2027 EPS guidance of 13.110–13.190 and Q1 2027 guidance of 3.110–3.130.
• The board authorized a $25 billion share buyback (up to ~14.1% of outstanding shares) and raised the quarterly dividend to $0.44 per share (annualized $1.76, ~0.9% yield).

Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 9.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 42,724 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,624 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $11,318,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Stratos Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Stratos Investment Management LLC now owns 31,959 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $8,466,000 after acquiring an additional 985 shares during the period. First American Bank grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. First American Bank now owns 14,418 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $3,819,000 after purchasing an additional 1,109 shares in the last quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Investment Research & Advisory Group Inc. now owns 16,351 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $4,337,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the period. Cromwell Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 2,940 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $780,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth about $199,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, December 29th. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $197.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $280.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,742,271.30. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE:CRM opened at $187.01 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $172.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a fifty day moving average of $194.55 and a 200 day moving average of $228.83. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $174.57 and a 52 week high of $296.05.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.78 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be given 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 dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is presently 21.25%.

Salesforce declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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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