Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. Boosts Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 15.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 22,792 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,013 shares during the period. Salesforce makes up approximately 0.9% of Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $6,038,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Dorato Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the company’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 value of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,742,271.30. This represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction 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. This represents a 23.11% 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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CRM. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. DA Davidson decreased their target price on Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Barclays decreased their target price on Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, KeyCorp decreased their target price on Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. One equities 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 issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $280.21.

Salesforce Stock Down 1.1%

NYSE CRM opened at $185.12 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $170.86 billion, a PE ratio of 23.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $174.57 and a fifty-two week high of $296.05. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $193.66 and a two-hundred day moving average price 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 (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion during 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%.Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business 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. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. This is a boost from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.25%.

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.