Avanza Fonder AB Reduces Stock Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Avanza Fonder AB reduced its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 7.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 61,144 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 4,894 shares during the period. Avanza Fonder AB’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $16,198,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 159.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,106,255,000 after purchasing an additional 10,636,161 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,826,049,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 27,361.5% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,424,169 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $933,737,000 after buying an additional 3,411,700 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the third quarter valued at about $484,852,000. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 285.4% in the third quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 2,487,627 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $589,568,000 after buying an additional 1,842,117 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $195.12 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $202.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $232.53. 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 twelve month low of $174.57 and a twelve month high of $296.05. The company has a market capitalization of $180.09 billion, a PE ratio of 24.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $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. Research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

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 paid a $0.44 dividend. This is an increase 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 21.25%.

Salesforce announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding 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 usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on CRM shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 target price (down from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Barclays cut 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. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $280.00 price objective on Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.21.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

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.