US Bancorp DE Has $102.03 Million Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• US Bancorp DE reduced its stake in Salesforce by 2.2% in Q4 to 385,136 shares, valued at $102.03 million.
• Salesforce beat quarterly estimates (EPS $3.81 vs. $3.05; revenue $11.20B), set FY27 EPS guidance of 13.110–13.190, raised its quarterly dividend to $0.44 and approved a $25 billion share buyback (up to 14.1% of shares).
• The stock carries a MarketBeat consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with a $279.18 target, institutional ownership is about 80.4%, and corporate insiders recently bought shares.

US Bancorp DE lowered its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 385,136 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 8,728 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE's holdings in Salesforce were worth $102,027,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $8,582,000 after buying an additional 3,102 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $611,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $747,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $807,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Bank lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 5.2% in the second quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,781,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $281.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $235.00 to $210.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $279.18.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the purchase, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought 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 owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Trading Down 2.6%

Shares of CRM opened at $176.45 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $163.52 and a 12-month high of $296.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $144.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.29. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $186.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $220.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.78 EPS. The company's 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. As a group, research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. This is an increase from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is currently 22.54%.

Salesforce announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

About Salesforce

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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