Yousif Capital Management LLC Reduces Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Yousif Capital Management LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 5.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 105,004 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 5,859 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $27,817,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 159.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,106,255,000 after purchasing an additional 10,636,161 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at about $484,852,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 285.4% in the 3rd quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 2,487,627 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $589,568,000 after purchasing an additional 1,842,117 shares during the last quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at about $431,157,000. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,051,119 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,753,519,000 after purchasing an additional 1,729,440 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director directly owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,742,271.30. This represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $183.00 on Wednesday. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $174.57 and a fifty-two week high of $296.05. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $192.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $227.80. The company has a market cap of $168.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.43, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.78 EPS. The firm’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. On average, research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 22.54%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on CRM. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, December 29th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Northland Securities decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Arete Research upgraded shares of Salesforce to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. One investment 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 stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.21.

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.