Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. reduced its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 72.4% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 75,991 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 199,466 shares during the period. Capital Group Private Client Services Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $18,010,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD. lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 45.1% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Group Investment Management PTE. LTD. now owns 20,005 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,741,000 after acquiring an additional 6,215 shares during the last quarter. Fieldview Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce during the third quarter worth about $2,415,000. WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,701,000. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 35.1% during the 3rd quarter. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. now owns 99,947 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,557,000 after buying an additional 25,992 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LGT Group Foundation lifted its position in Salesforce by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. LGT Group Foundation now owns 51,663 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $12,176,000 after buying an additional 1,932 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the sale, the director owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were bought 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 owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This trade 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 insiders.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $198.81 on Tuesday. 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 company has a 50-day moving average price of $215.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $236.46. The company has a market cap of $183.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $174.57 and a 12 month high of $296.05.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.18 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue 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. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders 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 21.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, December 29th. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective (down from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Salesforce from $375.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $283.14.

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.