Ascent Group LLC Boosts Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Ascent Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 59.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,355 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,693 shares during the quarter. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $5,535,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 87,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,814,000 after buying an additional 3,387 shares in the last quarter. Grant Private Wealth Management Inc acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth $1,458,000. Advyzon Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Salesforce by 57.4% in the 2nd quarter. Advyzon Investment Management LLC now owns 1,884 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $514,000 after buying an additional 687 shares during the last quarter. Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC now owns 206,614 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $56,342,000 after buying an additional 16,176 shares during the period. Finally, Country Club Bank raised its holdings in Salesforce by 337.8% during the 3rd quarter. Country Club Bank now owns 20,632 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,057,000 after purchasing an additional 15,919 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.1%

NYSE:CRM opened at $265.95 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $249.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $251.56. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $221.96 and a 52-week high of $367.09. The company has a market cap of $249.20 billion, a PE ratio of 35.51, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The business’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.41 EPS. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th will be issued a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on CRM shares. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Salesforce from $316.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Macquarie raised their price target on Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $326.68.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 96,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,803,314.90. The trade was a 49.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders sold 161,784 shares of company stock valued at $38,357,182. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Salesforce Company Profile

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.