Udine Wealth Management Inc. Purchases Shares of 10,042 Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Udine Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 10,042 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,660,000. Salesforce accounts for about 1.3% of Udine Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd biggest position.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Salesforce by 159.0% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,106,255,000 after purchasing an additional 10,636,161 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the third quarter worth approximately $484,852,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 285.4% in the third quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 2,487,627 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $589,568,000 after buying an additional 1,842,117 shares in the last quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter valued at $431,157,000. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 9.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,729,440 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CRM. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Mizuho reduced their target price on Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price target on Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Salesforce from $375.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $280.21.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was acquired 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 owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Stock Performance

CRM opened at $187.01 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $195.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $229.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $172.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $174.57 and a 12-month high of $296.05.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $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. On average, equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be given a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. This is a positive change from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.25%.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is 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.