BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 0.09% to 46.34 million shares with purchase of 42909.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 4.76% valued currently at $11.67 billion. In addition, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings by 0.31 million to 18.1 million shares. And Fisher Asset Management LLC has lifted its position by 2.01% or 0.28 million shares – to 14.17 million shares.
With over 6.62 million Salesforce Inc (CRM) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $260.87 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $1.73 billion. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 22.58% and its price on 01/08/24 gained nearly 3.88%. Currently, there are 1.01B common shares owned by the public and among those 937.22M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 46 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for CRM have a consensus price objective of $279.97. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $369.00 and a low of $212.00. The average price target is 6.82% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -23.05% over that period. But an upside of 29.3% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $277.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 1112 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 242 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 965,627 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 870 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 3,849,091 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Salesforce Inc are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and Fidelity 500 Index Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 29.0 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $7.31 billion. The company bought an additional 40397.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 2.98% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 0.11 million shares to see its total holdings expand to 23.52 million shares valued at over $5.92 billion and representing 2.42% of the shares outstanding. Fidelity 500 Index Fund bought 72228.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 11.35 million shares at a value of $2.86 billion. Fidelity 500 Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 1.17% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Salesforce Inc (NYSE: CRM) opened at $252.21, up $1.09 from a prior closing price of $251.12. However, the script later moved the day high at 261.56, up 3.88%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -0.86% and 25.81% over the past three months. CRM shares are trading -0.86% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 91.34% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $135.55 and touched a high of $268.36 over the same period. CRM has an average intraday trading volume of 5.25 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 0.76%, 10.72%, and 21.12% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Salesforce Inc (NYSE: CRM) shares accounts for 80.42% of the company’s 1.01B shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 4.64%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 44.80% and 35.59% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $252.52B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.28. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 99.02, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $2.63. The company has a PEG of 3.70 and a Quick Ratio of 0.95 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.24. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.06% over the week and 1.67% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc (CRM) will achieve an EPS of $2.26 for the current quarter, $2.19 for the next quarter and $9.56 for 2025. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $2.22 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $2.31. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.68 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 56.38%, and 17.19% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 26.77% over the next five years, compared to -15.70% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 46 brokerage firm advisors rate Salesforce Inc (CRM) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.72. Specifically, 29 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 14 of the 46 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the CRM, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Morgan Stanley stated their Overweight rating for the stock in a research note on December 21, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $290-$350.
