Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stock Acquired by UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp

UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp grew its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 58,674 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,098 shares during the quarter. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $13,470,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

These are some of the CRM headlines that stood out recently:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s free cash flow supports substantial share buybacks and dividends, potentially sustaining shareholder returns. However, slower growth projections raise questions about how durable those payouts will be. CRM’s Cash Flow Strength: Can It Sustain Big Shareholder Returns?
• Positive Sentiment: Missionforce National Security received “Awardable” status in a federal solutions marketplace, giving Department of War organizations access to Salesforce’s recruiting capabilities. This could support government-sector opportunities, though the immediate financial impact is unclear. Missionforce National Security Achieves Awardable Status
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage highlighted Salesforce’s value-stock characteristics and argued its shares may be undervalued, while noting that leverage concerns persist. Salesforce Stock Looks Undervalued Even As Leverage Concerns Linger

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $217.35 on Thursday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.32 and a 1 year high of $269.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $236.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $198.48. The firm has a market cap of $178.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.81, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.24.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $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. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, September 11th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 16th. Bank of America raised shares of Salesforce from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $160.00 to $285.00 in a report on Monday, October 12th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, October 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.98.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

About Salesforce

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.