Montag A & Associates Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 87.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,636 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 18,870 shares during the period. Montag A & Associates Inc.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $626,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at $2,826,049,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 27,361.5% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,424,169 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $933,737,000 after buying an additional 3,411,700 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1,729.6% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,973,141 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $538,020,000 after buying an additional 1,865,297 shares during the period. Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter valued at about $431,157,000. Finally, Amundi raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 26.2% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,087,545,000 after acquiring an additional 1,612,413 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company's stock.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
CRM has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped 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. UBS Group reduced their price objective 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. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, November 28th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $280.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $283.14.
Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on CRM
Salesforce Stock Performance
NYSE:CRM opened at $193.15 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $174.57 and a twelve month high of $298.08. The company has a fifty day moving average of $219.76 and a 200-day moving average of $237.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $178.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 1.29.
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce's 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. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.
Salesforce Increases Dividend
The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is an increase from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.25%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other Salesforce news, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 96,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at $780,309,155.22. This trade represents a 3.31% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at $2,761,499.28. This represents a 22.15% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Salesforce News Summary
Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:
About Salesforce
(
Free Report)
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.
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