TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. Purchases 3,150 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 4.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 69,402 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,150 shares during the quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $18,384,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,572,253 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $21,228,624,000 after buying an additional 748,772 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Salesforce by 0.3% in 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 buying an additional 159,739 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake 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 buying an additional 1,729,440 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Salesforce by 159.0% during 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 acquiring an additional 10,636,161 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Salesforce by 11.8% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,155,512 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,695,856,000 after acquiring an additional 754,116 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Salesforce from $197.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $279.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Salesforce Stock Up 2.2%

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $186.10 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The business has a 50-day moving average of $187.71 and a 200-day moving average of $223.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $152.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.83, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $163.52 and a 12 month high of $296.05.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be given a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. This is a boost from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.54%.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

About Salesforce

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.