Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co Has $41.65 Million Stock Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co reduced its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 13.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 157,228 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 25,200 shares during the period. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $41,651,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX purchased a new position in Salesforce in the third quarter valued at about $28,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $183.98 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $186.67 and its 200-day moving average is $220.11. 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 firm has a market cap of $150.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.14. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $163.52 and a 12-month high of $296.05.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. Salesforce’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.78 EPS. 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 predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is a boost from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 22.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the acquisition, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased 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 in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on CRM. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $260.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 18th. Northland Securities lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $279.18.

Salesforce Company Profile

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.