Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Bought by Central Bank & Trust Co.

Central Bank & Trust Co. boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 67.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,787 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,745 shares during the quarter. Central Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,558,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $11,396,844,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter worth approximately $1,914,086,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,363,096,000 after purchasing an additional 7,160,302 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $844,928,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Salesforce news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This trade represents a 28.66% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on CRM. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $222.00 to $266.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $275.14.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of CRM traded up $0.67 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $228.47. 1,989,397 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,672,909. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $146.32 and a one year high of $269.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $188.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.83, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.26. The business has a 50-day moving average of $225.66 and a 200 day moving average of $192.67.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.91 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were given a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.04%.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc (NYSE: CRM) develops cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software and enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, analytics, data integration and collaboration through subscription-based services.

The company’s product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Platform, Data Cloud and Tableau. Salesforce also offers MuleSoft integration technology, Slack collaboration software and artificial intelligence capabilities through its Einstein platform.