Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Bought by UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp

UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 5.6% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 58,674 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing 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.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CRM. Latitude Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the third quarter valued at $25,000. ABS Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $610,974,000. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $25,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Finally, Persistent Asset Partners Ltd acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the transaction, the director owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce News Summary

Here’s some of the latest news about CRM:

• 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: Salesforce scheduled its fiscal 2027 third-quarter earnings release and webcast. The announcement sets a date for investors to assess results and guidance but does not itself indicate a change in performance. Salesforce Announces Date of Third Quarter Fiscal 2027 Earnings Release and Webcast

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on CRM. Wolfe Research upgraded Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Thursday, September 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, Argus boosted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 31st. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.98.

Salesforce Trading Up 1.8%

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

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.91 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were paid 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 payout ratio is currently 16.04%.

Salesforce Company 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.