Means Investment CO. Inc. Reduces Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Means Investment CO. Inc. trimmed its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 14.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 17,712 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 2,993 shares during the quarter. Means Investment CO. Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $4,198,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 88,823,481 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $24,221,275,000 after buying an additional 909,853 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.6% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,260,918 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $13,452,998,000 after acquiring an additional 776,300 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.6% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,873,900 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,669,224,000 after purchasing an additional 114,504 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth approximately $2,826,049,000. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings in 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $193.89 on Tuesday. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $185.73 and a fifty-two week high of $331.75. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $181.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.89, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.27. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $242.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $244.55.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. Salesforce’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.41 EPS. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were given a dividend of $0.416 per share. 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 0.9%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total value of $31,605,171.40. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,803,314.90. This represents a 49.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 96,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were bought at an average price of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Northland Securities upped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $264.00 to $267.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, January 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $260.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a 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 issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.57.

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.