Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Sold by Value Partners Investments Inc.

Key Points

• Value Partners Investments reduced its Salesforce stake by 34.5% in the third quarter, selling 152,600 shares and retaining 289,626 shares valued at approximately $66.5 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Analysts remain broadly positive on Salesforce, with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $278.40. Recent firms raised their targets, including Freedom Broker to $295 and Mizuho to $280.
• Salesforce reported quarterly EPS of $5.90, substantially above the $3.27 consensus estimate, while revenue rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, implying a 0.7% annual yield.

Value Partners Investments Inc. lowered its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 34.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 289,626 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 152,600 shares during the period. Salesforce makes up about 4.5% of Value Partners Investments Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Value Partners Investments Inc.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $66,546,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at $11,396,844,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $2,363,096,000 after buying an additional 7,160,302 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 28.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 11,724,790 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,188,666,000 after buying an additional 2,561,923 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth about $844,928,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the topic of several recent research reports. Freedom Broker upped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $230.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Mizuho raised 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. Wall Street Zen cut Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price objective on Salesforce from $222.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, September 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $278.40.

Insider Activity

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

Salesforce Trading Up 0.9%

CRM stock traded up $2.07 on Monday, hitting $242.77. 7,038,715 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,517,932. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $199.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.26. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $146.32 and a twelve month high of $269.11. The business's fifty day moving average is $232.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $195.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced 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 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 analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.91 EPS. Salesforce'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, research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce's payout ratio is 16.04%.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc NYSE: CRM is a global enterprise software company that provides cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) technology. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data, analytics and interactions with customers across digital and traditional channels.

The company's products include Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud and Data Cloud. Salesforce also offers Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and Slack for workplace collaboration.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.