Benjamin Edwards Inc. Increases Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 14.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 81,609 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 10,590 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $19,343,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. B&D White Capital Company LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,069,000. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 91.3% in the third quarter. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. now owns 10,425 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,471,000 after purchasing an additional 4,975 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in Salesforce by 1,144.7% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 795,225 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $188,468,000 after buying an additional 731,336 shares during the period. Clean Yield Group lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 25,202 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,973,000 after buying an additional 1,911 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 18.3% during the 3rd quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 41,601 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $9,860,000 after buying an additional 6,423 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This represents a 22.15% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 96,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at $780,309,155.22. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 157,284 shares of company stock worth $37,274,684 over the last three months. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on Salesforce from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $260.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Macquarie boosted their price objective on Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $327.74.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $266.06 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $249.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.52, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.26. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $250.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $251.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $221.96 and a twelve month high of $367.09.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The business had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.41 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

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.