Waycross Partners LLC Buys New Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Waycross Partners initiated a Salesforce position in the third quarter, buying 5,000 shares valued at approximately $1.15 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively owned 80.43% of the stock.
• Analysts had a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $278.98; recent target changes ranged from $250 to $315.
• Salesforce reported quarterly earnings of $5.90 per share, exceeding the $3.27 consensus estimate, while revenue rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion.

Waycross Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 5,000 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,148,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at $11,396,844,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% during the first 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 in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth $1,914,086,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter valued at about $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter valued at about $844,928,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on CRM. Bank of America raised shares of Salesforce from an "underperform" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $160.00 to $285.00 in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, September 17th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 21st. Finally, Citizens Jmp reiterated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, September 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $278.98.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The shares were purchased 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 owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of CRM traded down $8.45 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $213.96. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,708,466 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,142,592. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $146.32 and a one year high of $269.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $176.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.24. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $239.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $198.64.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. Salesforce's 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. As a group, equities analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Salesforce's payout ratio is 16.04%.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s planned acquisition of AI voice-agent company Cresta could strengthen Agentforce and Service Cloud, adding capabilities for customer-service automation. The deal also brings acquisition costs and execution risks. Article: Salesforce Bets on AI Voice Agents With Planned Cresta Acquisition
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research upgraded Salesforce from “hold” to “strong buy,” a favorable analyst signal that may help counter near-term concerns. Article: Zacks Research rating
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce is expanding its Coworker offering and promoting a 21-times growth claim, but the report notes that no baseline is provided, making the figure difficult to assess. Article: Salesforce Expands Coworker’s Reach, but Its 21× Growth Claim Has No Baseline
• Neutral Sentiment: The company is extending Agent Fabric to help businesses manage AI agents across platforms. Its large customer base and reported 1.2 billion daily requests suggest potential, but investors still need evidence that the AI activity will translate into meaningful revenue. Article: Salesforce Stock: The 1 Number Investors Still Need to See
• Negative Sentiment: A broader software sell-off is weighing on CRM, while S&P Global Ratings cut Salesforce’s credit rating to A from A+. S&P cited acquisition spending and a $25 billion debt-financed buyback, which lifted pro forma net debt relative to EBITDA above its previous downgrade threshold. The rating action raises concerns about leverage and aggressive capital allocation. Article: S&P cuts Salesforce to A on rising acquisition debt and buybacks

Salesforce 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.

Founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff and other co-founders, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco.

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