Clear Trail Advisors LLC Invests $759,000 in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Clear Trail Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 2,867 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $759,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 0.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,572,253 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $21,228,624,000 after buying an additional 748,772 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,420,657 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $11,732,966,000 after acquiring an additional 159,739 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,051,119 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,753,519,000 after acquiring an additional 1,729,440 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 159.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,106,255,000 after acquiring an additional 10,636,161 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $2,826,049,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were acquired at an average price 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 $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was purchased 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 trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $195.12 on Tuesday. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $174.57 and a fifty-two week high of $296.05. The company has a market cap of $180.09 billion, a PE ratio of 24.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $202.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $232.53.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.78 earnings per share. 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, equities analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. This is a boost from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.54%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $430.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 target price (down from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Truist Financial set a $280.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $197.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $280.21.

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.