Salesforce Inc. $CRM Holdings Lowered by St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management LLC

Key Points

• St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management cut its Salesforce position by 95.4% in the third quarter, selling 20,450 shares and retaining 979 shares valued at approximately $225,000. Institutional investors still own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive, with Salesforce holding a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $278.12, despite some firms lowering ratings or targets.
• Salesforce shares recently traded around $241, while the company reported quarterly revenue growth of 10.8% and earnings that exceeded estimates. A director also bought nearly $1 million of stock, though another director sold approximately $1.17 million in shares.

St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management LLC reduced its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 95.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 979 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 20,450 shares during the quarter. St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $225,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Gunpowder Capital Management LLC dba Oliver Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,000. Costello Asset Management INC boosted its position in Salesforce by 410.3% during the first quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. ABS Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $610,974,000. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Finally, Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on CRM shares. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, September 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, September 17th. BTIG Research restated a "buy" rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, Phillip Securities cut Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and cut their price target for the company from $253.00 to $166.00 in a report on Monday, June 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $278.12.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at $4,486,958.84. The trade was a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company's stock.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce launched Hunter, an AI-powered outbound sales agent built on Agentforce. Integrations with ZoomInfo, Demandbase and DocuSign could increase adoption of Salesforce’s higher-value AI workflows and make the platform more embedded in customers’ sales and contracting processes. Salesforce unveils Hunter for AI-powered outbound sales
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America reportedly upgraded Salesforce in a rare double upgrade, citing improving confidence in the company’s AI strategy, including a small AI acquisition and changes to AI-product pricing. The upgrade supports the view that monetization could improve as customers move to premium offerings. Salesforce received a rare double upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: The Loops AI acquisition and new Agentforce capabilities reinforce Salesforce’s effort to turn AI into a growth driver, although investors will need evidence of meaningful revenue acceleration. Salesforce buys the Loops AI platform
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor interest in CRM has risen sharply, with Salesforce appearing among heavily searched stocks. This may increase visibility but is not, by itself, a fundamental catalyst. Investors heavily search Salesforce
• Negative Sentiment: Enterprise-software shares are falling as worries spread that aggressive AI infrastructure and financing commitments may not generate sufficient returns. Salesforce is being pulled lower alongside other AI-linked software leaders. Enterprise software stocks fall as AI financing worries spread
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are comparing Salesforce’s premium-edition price increases with Adobe’s more user-friendly pricing approach, raising concerns that Salesforce’s AI monetization strategy could pressure customer upgrades or retention. Adobe versus Salesforce for AI software growth

Salesforce Trading Down 2.3%

Salesforce stock traded down $5.74 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $241.00. 8,338,232 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,674,550. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.97, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.26. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $231.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $194.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.91 earnings per share. Salesforce's quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th were issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is currently 16.04%.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc NYSE: CRM develops cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software and enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, analytics, data integration and collaboration through subscription-based services.

The company's product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Platform, Data Cloud and Tableau. Salesforce also offers MuleSoft integration technology, Slack collaboration software and artificial intelligence capabilities through its Einstein platform.

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