UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp Increases Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp boosted its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 16.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 59,247 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,171 shares during the quarter. Salesforce accounts for about 0.8% of UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $14,041,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kingdom Financial Group LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter valued at about $206,000. Northstar Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Salesforce by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northstar Asset Management Inc. now owns 32,971 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $7,814,000 after buying an additional 230 shares in the last quarter. Coign Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Coign Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,601 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $616,000 after buying an additional 370 shares during the last quarter. Facet Wealth Inc. boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 28.1% in the 3rd quarter. Facet Wealth Inc. now owns 1,642 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $389,000 after buying an additional 360 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proem Advisors LLC increased its stake in Salesforce by 127.6% during the 3rd quarter. Proem Advisors LLC now owns 39,836 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $9,441,000 after buying an additional 22,336 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the acquisition, the director owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director G Mason Morfit bought 96,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $780,309,155.22. This trade represents a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders have sold 145,427 shares of company stock valued at $34,290,361 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Trading Up 3.0%

Shares of CRM opened at $228.19 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $218.96 and a 12-month high of $367.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $213.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.26. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $247.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $249.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.86 by $0.39. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The company had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.27 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.41 EPS. Salesforce’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 18th were given a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CRM. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Salesforce from $405.00 to $398.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Salesforce from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $430.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, October 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Mizuho set a $340.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.51.

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.