Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Acquired by Aspiriant LLC

Aspiriant LLC boosted its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 180.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 11,627 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,477 shares during the period. Aspiriant LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $3,080,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 159.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,106,255,000 after buying an additional 10,636,161 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at about $484,852,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. grew its stake in Salesforce by 285.4% in the 3rd quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 2,487,627 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $589,568,000 after acquiring an additional 1,842,117 shares during the last quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter valued at about $431,157,000. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 9.4% in the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,051,119 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,753,519,000 after purchasing an additional 1,729,440 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In related news, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. This represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on Salesforce from $325.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Salesforce from $375.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on Salesforce from $197.00 to $200.00 and gave the company 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 assigned 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, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $280.21.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $187.01 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $174.57 and a fifty-two week high of $296.05. The business’s fifty day moving average is $194.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $228.83. 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 firm has a market cap of $172.61 billion, a PE ratio of 23.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.78 earnings per share. 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. Analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s management 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 paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.25%.

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.