Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 48.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,977 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,930 shares during the period. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $3,173,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Dorato Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $280.21.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $185.12 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $170.86 billion, a PE ratio of 23.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.29. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $193.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $228.25. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $174.57 and a one year high of $296.05. 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 earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last 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 predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. 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 21.25%.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the firm’s 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 trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Company 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.