General American Investors Co. Inc. Reduces Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

General American Investors Co. Inc. lowered its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 33.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 40,000 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 20,000 shares during the quarter. General American Investors Co. Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $9,480,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 87,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,814,000 after acquiring an additional 3,387 shares during the last quarter. Harvey Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Salesforce by 17.7% in the third quarter. Harvey Capital Management Inc. now owns 32,621 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $7,731,000 after purchasing an additional 4,905 shares in the last quarter. Grant Private Wealth Management Inc bought a new stake in Salesforce during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,458,000. Advyzon Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 57.4% in the 2nd quarter. Advyzon Investment Management LLC now owns 1,884 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $514,000 after buying an additional 687 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional grew its stake in Salesforce by 78.0% in the 3rd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 43,186 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $10,235,000 after buying an additional 18,927 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the sale, the director directly owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 1,936 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the acquisition, the director owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,761,499.28. This represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 143,177 shares of company stock worth $33,714,069. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.6%

NYSE:CRM opened at $229.41 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $214.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 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. The company has a fifty day moving average of $247.39 and a 200 day moving average of $248.44. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $218.96 and a 52 week high of $367.09.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on CRM shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $340.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 4th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $260.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. BTIG Research started coverage on Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $335.00 target price for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, January 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $330.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.51.

About Salesforce

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.