Great Lakes Advisors LLC Sells 33,981 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Great Lakes Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 82.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,374 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 33,981 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,748,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce during the third quarter worth $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Quaker Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 208.6% during the 2nd quarter. Quaker Wealth Management LLC now owns 126 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Country Trust Bank boosted its position in Salesforce by 658.8% in the second quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Price Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $212.10 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $208.78 and a 52-week high of $349.50. The company has a market cap of $198.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $246.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $247.45.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.41 EPS. Salesforce’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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 of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 22.16%.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the completion of 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. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total transaction of $31,598.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,085,096,889. This represents a 0.00% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 138,677 shares of company stock worth $32,566,029. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. One research 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 issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.