Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Bought by E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB

E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB lifted its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 4.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 175,552 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,684 shares during the period. Salesforce makes up 1.1% of E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $46,505,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CRM. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter worth $26,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter valued at $27,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX bought a new position in Salesforce during the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Country Trust Bank grew its holdings in Salesforce by 658.8% during the second quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.1%

NYSE CRM opened at $195.12 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $180.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $174.57 and a 52 week high of $296.05. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $202.64 and a 200-day moving average of $232.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued 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 business had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.78 EPS. 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, equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

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

Salesforce announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CRM. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Northland Securities cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Wolfe Research restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $281.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One research 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $280.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.