Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Acquired by Aspiriant LLC

Aspiriant LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 180.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,627 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,477 shares during the quarter. Aspiriant LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $3,080,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Essex LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. Essex LLC now owns 3,794 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,005,000 after purchasing an additional 501 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Management Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $201,000. Aspire Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 30.3% in the 4th quarter. Aspire Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,281 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $339,000 after purchasing an additional 298 shares during the last quarter. Udine Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,660,000. Finally, Louisbourg Investments Inc. boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Louisbourg Investments Inc. now owns 39,198 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $10,384,000 after purchasing an additional 2,396 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE:CRM opened at $187.01 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $174.57 and a 12-month high of $296.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $194.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $228.83. The firm has a market cap of $172.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.94, 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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.78 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This is a positive change from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 21.25%.

Insider Activity

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director directly owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,742,271.30. This represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on CRM shares. KeyCorp cut their price target on Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. DA Davidson cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 27th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $197.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $280.21.

Salesforce 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.