Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Acquired by Ritholtz Wealth Management

Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 51.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,990 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 7,808 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management's holdings in Salesforce were worth $5,278,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth about $11,396,844,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,363,096,000 after buying an additional 7,160,302 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,914,086,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at about $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at about $844,928,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the topic of several analyst reports. Deutsche Bank began coverage on Salesforce in a report on Monday, October 12th. They set a "buy" rating on the stock. Bank of America raised Salesforce from an "underperform" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the company from $160.00 to $285.00 in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Barclays downgraded Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "positive" rating in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Mizuho boosted their price target on Salesforce from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $278.98.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $217.38 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The company has a market capitalization of $178.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.82, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.24. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $146.32 and a 12 month high of $269.11. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $236.19 and a 200-day moving average of $198.42.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.04%.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 4,176 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the purchase, the director owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 3.50% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc. is a cloud-based software company best known for customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Its platform helps businesses manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce and customer data, and includes products such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Data Cloud and Agentforce. The company also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data analytics and visualization, and MuleSoft for connecting applications and data. Salesforce's products are used by organizations across a range of industries and are available to customers around the world.

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