Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Raises Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 159.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 26,032 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 15,990 shares during the quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $6,896,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Aspire Growth Partners LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 1.2% in the third quarter. Aspire Growth Partners LLC now owns 3,355 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $795,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the period. Byrne Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,147,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the period. Mathes Company Inc. lifted its position in Salesforce by 0.4% in the third quarter. Mathes Company Inc. now owns 12,558 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,976,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 0.3% in the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,548,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Finally, Beacon Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 3.5% in the third quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,372 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $325,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Roth Mkm reduced their price target on shares of Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price target on shares of Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $274.12.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.1%

CRM stock opened at $180.32 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $147.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.09, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $163.52 and a one year high of $280.74. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $181.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $212.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.78 EPS. 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, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.