Townsquare Capital LLC Decreases Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Townsquare Capital LLC lessened its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 49.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,619 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 2,579 shares during the quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $621,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,826,049,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 27,361.5% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,424,169 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $933,737,000 after purchasing an additional 3,411,700 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 1,729.6% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,973,141 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $538,020,000 after purchasing an additional 1,865,297 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 26.2% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,087,545,000 after purchasing an additional 1,612,413 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 45.8% during the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 3,931,945 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,072,202,000 after buying an additional 1,234,969 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $212.10 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $198.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.26. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $208.78 and a 1 year high of $349.50. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $246.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $247.52. 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 posted 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. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The company had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.41 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were paid a dividend of $0.416 per share. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 22.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In related news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 1,936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was bought at an average price of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the purchase, the director owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This represents a 22.15% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 138,677 shares of company stock valued at $32,566,029. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $340.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Arete Research raised Salesforce to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.51.

Salesforce 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.