Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD. Boosts Stock Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD. boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 45.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 20,005 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,215 shares during the period. Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $4,741,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,826,049,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 27,361.5% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,424,169 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $933,737,000 after acquiring an additional 3,411,700 shares during the period. Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new stake in Salesforce in the third quarter valued at $431,157,000. Amundi boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 26.2% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,087,545,000 after acquiring an additional 1,612,413 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group increased its position in Salesforce by 45.8% during the 2nd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 3,931,945 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,072,202,000 after purchasing an additional 1,234,969 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the purchase, the director owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at $2,761,499.28. This represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $198.81 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $215.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $236.46. 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 capitalization of $183.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 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.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $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. Analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal 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 paid a $0.44 dividend. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. 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. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 21.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on CRM. Barclays decreased their price objective 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. Bank of America cut their price objective on Salesforce from $325.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Salesforce from $235.00 to $210.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $283.14.

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.