Albion Financial Group UT Sells 8,596 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Albion Financial Group UT lowered its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 18.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 37,622 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 8,596 shares during the quarter. Albion Financial Group UT’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $9,967,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CRM. Aspire Growth Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Aspire Growth Partners LLC now owns 3,355 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $795,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. now owns 1,420 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $337,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,147,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Code Waechter LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Code Waechter LLC now owns 871 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $209,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 40.9% in the 2nd quarter. Capital A Wealth Management LLC now owns 155 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CRM. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $210.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $255.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Roth Mkm lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Piper Sandler restated 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. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $280.21.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the firm’s 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 purchase, the director directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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 completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of CRM stock opened at $185.12 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $193.66 and a 200-day moving average of $228.25. 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 Inc. has a 12-month low of $174.57 and a 12-month high of $296.05. The firm has a market cap of $170.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.70, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.78 EPS. Salesforce’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. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.25%.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management 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.