UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp Sells 13,771 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp decreased its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 23.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 45,476 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 13,771 shares during the period. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $12,047,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Advisor OS LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Advisor OS LLC now owns 2,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $665,000 after buying an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 285.7% in the fourth quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 108 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,474 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $656,000 after buying an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. JSF Financial LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. JSF Financial LLC now owns 1,876 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $497,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 24,893 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,594,000 after acquiring an additional 305 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CRM. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. 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 report on Tuesday, February 17th. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Salesforce from $250.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research 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 presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $279.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Down 2.5%

CRM stock opened at $181.67 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $163.52 and a fifty-two week high of $296.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $148.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.26, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.14. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $186.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $218.91.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. 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 anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued a $0.44 dividend. 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%. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 22.54%.

Salesforce announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce launched Agentforce Operations, a new tool designed to automate complex enterprise workflows, and rising adoption of its Agentforce AI platform is helping reinforce the company’s AI growth story. Salesforce AI Shift Agentforce Operations Links Product Adoption To Valuation
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is also bringing Agentforce Sales to ChatGPT, which could expand the reach of its AI-driven CRM tools and support adoption with enterprise customers.
• Positive Sentiment: A new revenue reporting structure beginning in FY27 is intended to align disclosures more closely with Salesforce’s AI-led strategy, potentially making it easier for investors to track how AI products are contributing to growth. Salesforce Inc’s (CRM) New Reporting Structure To Give Better Insights Into AI Driven Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Third-party coverage continues to frame CRM as an AI and big-data beneficiary, with analysts highlighting Salesforce as a play on surging analytics demand and enterprise AI adoption. Top Big Data Stocks Powering the AI Boom as Analytics Demand Surges
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles compare Salesforce with HubSpot and discuss its competitive position in CRM, but these pieces are more strategic than immediately market-moving.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent coverage also raises a leadership succession question around Marc Benioff, which could create some overhang if investors become more focused on long-term governance and continuity risk. Beyond Benioff: Is Salesforce Ready for Life Without Its Founder?
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce has also been reported as falling in recent trading, suggesting investors may still be cautious despite the company’s AI initiatives.

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.