Hikari Tsushin Inc. Takes $963,000 Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Hikari Tsushin Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRMFree Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 3,634 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $963,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,800,353,000 after purchasing an additional 270,913 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Salesforce by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,420,657 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $11,732,966,000 after purchasing an additional 159,739 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Salesforce by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,751,073,000 after purchasing an additional 791,345 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 13.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,672,684 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,211,515,000 after purchasing an additional 2,347,478 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce Stock Performance

CRM stock opened at $166.81 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $180.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $207.18. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $163.31 and a 12-month high of $276.80. The firm has a market cap of $136.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRMGet Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.58 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.3 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 20.37%.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Northland Securities reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $259.26.

View Our Latest Report on CRM

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

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

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

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Salesforce Company Profile

(Free Report)

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.

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

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