Capital International Investors Has $4.75 Billion Stock Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Capital International Investors raised its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 9.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 20,051,119 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,729,440 shares during the quarter. Capital International Investors owned about 2.11% of Salesforce worth $4,753,519,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Country Trust Bank increased its holdings in Salesforce by 658.8% during the 2nd quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. Kilter Group LLC bought a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth about $42,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 40.9% in the 2nd quarter. Capital A Wealth Management LLC now owns 155 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In related news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This represents a 22.15% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CRM. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. DA Davidson dropped their target price on Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Evercore decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $283.14.

Salesforce Price Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $198.81 on Tuesday. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $174.57 and a 52-week high of $296.05. The company has a market cap of $183.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $215.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $236.46.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period 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, sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business 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 $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This is a boost from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 21.25%.

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.