Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Acquired by Advisors Asset Management Inc.

Key Points

• Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Salesforce Inc. by 11.1% in the first quarter, now holding 27,790 shares worth approximately $7.46 million.
• CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of Salesforce, reducing his ownership slightly, as the stock has seen substantial trading activity from institutional investors, who own 80.43% of the company.
• Analysts have mixed price targets for Salesforce, with Goldman Sachs raising its target to $385.00 and Bank of America lowering it to $325.00, while the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy".

Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 11.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 27,790 shares of the CRM provider's stock after buying an additional 2,774 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $7,458,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in Salesforce in the 1st quarter worth $265,400,000. Ancora Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 12.6% in the 1st quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 6,985 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,874,000 after buying an additional 782 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 5.0% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 6,142,904 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $1,575,200,000 after purchasing an additional 292,356 shares during the last quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 7.1% during the 1st quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,227 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $1,134,000 after purchasing an additional 282 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Paragon Private Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.8% during the 1st quarter. Paragon Private Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,464 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $1,466,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on CRM. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $340.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Stephens decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $311.00 to $309.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 30th. KeyCorp decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $440.00 to $400.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an "overweight" rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday. Finally, DA Davidson upgraded shares of Salesforce from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $225.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $331.34.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.50, for a total transaction of $543,375.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,876,644,396.50. The trade was a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 66,077 shares of company stock worth $16,885,773 over the last 90 days. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Salesforce Stock Up 2.6%

CRM stock traded up $6.39 during trading on Friday, hitting $250.40. 13,010,920 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,763,446. The firm has a market capitalization of $239.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.40, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.22. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $255.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $266.68. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $226.48 and a 1 year high of $369.00.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.13. Salesforce had a net margin of 16.87% and a return on equity of 13.34%. The company had revenue of $10.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.14 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.56 earnings per share. Salesforce's revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2026 guidance at 11.330-11.370 EPS. Q3 2026 guidance at 2.840-2.860 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.416 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 17th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Salesforce's payout ratio is 24.13%.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology that brings companies and customers together worldwide. The company's service includes sales to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, gain insights through analytics and artificial intelligence, and deliver quotes, contracts, and invoices; and service that enables companies to deliver trusted and highly personalized customer support at scale.