GraniteShares Advisors LLC Has $70,000 Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

GraniteShares Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 95.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 265 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 6,090 shares during the period. GraniteShares Advisors LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $70,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Independence Bank of Kentucky lifted its stake in Salesforce by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 12,502 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,312,000 after acquiring an additional 138 shares in the last quarter. Realta Investment Advisors bought a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $229,000. Florida Trust Wealth Management Co lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Florida Trust Wealth Management Co now owns 129,211 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $34,229,000 after purchasing an additional 5,478 shares during the last quarter. Westwood Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $400,000. Finally, Advocate Group LLC boosted its position in Salesforce by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Advocate Group LLC now owns 12,777 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,385,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM opened at $187.01 on Friday. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $174.57 and a 52 week high of $296.05. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $194.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $228.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $172.61 billion, a PE ratio of 23.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $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. As a group, analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be given a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were bought at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $929,259.10. Following the sale, the director 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $260.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. 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 report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.21.

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.