455,946 Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Bought by Fisher Asset Management LLC

Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 11.9% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,288,199 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 455,946 shares during the quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $984,442,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CRM. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Latitude Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the third quarter worth $25,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter worth $26,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Gables Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter valued at $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $217.38 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $178.91 billion, a PE ratio of 19.82, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.24. 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 12-month low of $146.32 and a 12-month high of $269.11. The company has a 50-day moving average of $236.19 and a 200 day moving average of $198.42.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The business’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.91 EPS. 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, sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th were issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend 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 currently 16.04%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, October 20th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Salesforce from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, CLSA started coverage on Salesforce in a research report on Monday, July 20th. They set a “hold” rating and a $165.00 target price on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.98.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Profile

Salesforce, Inc. is a cloud-based software company best known for customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Its platform helps businesses manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce and customer data, and includes products such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Data Cloud and Agentforce. The company also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data analytics and visualization, and MuleSoft for connecting applications and data. Salesforce’s products are used by organizations across a range of industries and are available to customers around the world.