Tran Capital Management L.P. Has $19.44 Million Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Tran Capital Management L.P. trimmed its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 7.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 73,388 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 6,288 shares during the period. Salesforce accounts for approximately 2.3% of Tran Capital Management L.P.’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Tran Capital Management L.P.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $19,441,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rainier Family Wealth Inc. raised its holdings in Salesforce by 66.3% during the 4th quarter. Rainier Family Wealth Inc. now owns 1,849 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $490,000 after purchasing an additional 737 shares during the last quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 41.0% during the fourth quarter. Sovran Advisors LLC now owns 10,016 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,653,000 after buying an additional 2,913 shares during the last quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 38.2% in the fourth quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 10,830 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,869,000 after buying an additional 2,994 shares during the period. Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Salesforce by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Cornell Pochily Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 6,964 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,845,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arta Finance Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth $1,407,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Salesforce from $235.00 to $210.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly 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. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $187.01 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $172.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The business has a 50-day moving average of $194.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $228.76. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $174.57 and a 1 year high of $296.05.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The business had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.78 EPS. Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter 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 predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business 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 of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 22.54%.

Salesforce declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.