Portside Wealth Group LLC Raises Stock Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Portside Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 89.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,397 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,855 shares during the quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $3,284,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Rockland Trust Co. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1,145.6% during the 3rd quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 13,066 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,097,000 after buying an additional 12,017 shares in the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 98.3% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 21,455 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,085,000 after buying an additional 10,633 shares in the last quarter. Midwest Trust Co lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 187,071 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $44,336,000 after buying an additional 4,233 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 15.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 467,551 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $113,420,000 after buying an additional 61,270 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 42.2% during the 3rd quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 281,054 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $66,610,000 after buying an additional 83,403 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of CRM stock opened at $185.12 on Tuesday. The stock 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $174.57 and a 52 week high of $296.05. 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 company’s fifty day simple moving average is $193.66 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $228.25.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company 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. Analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is a positive change from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 21.25%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase 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 repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $197.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Salesforce from $235.00 to $210.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. One investment 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 issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $280.21.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, 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 sale, the director directly owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,742,271.30. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 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.