Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Sold by WestEnd Advisors LLC

WestEnd Advisors LLC decreased its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 150,555 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 3,257 shares during the period. WestEnd Advisors LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $35,682,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Painted Porch Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 260.0% during the second quarter. Painted Porch Advisors LLC now owns 90 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 314.8% during the 1st quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 112 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc increased its position in Salesforce by 383.3% during the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 116 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the period. Finally, Maseco LLP purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $340.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 28th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $405.00 to $398.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 9th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $326.68.

Salesforce Trading Down 4.2%

NYSE CRM opened at $253.68 on Monday. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $221.96 and a 52-week high of $367.09. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $249.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $251.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $237.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 18th will be given a $0.416 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 1,936 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the transaction, the director owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 96,000 shares of the business’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 acquisition, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. This represents a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 159,534 shares of company stock worth $37,814,212 in the last ninety days. 3.00% of the stock is owned by 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.