Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Lowers Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 52,284 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 6,224 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $12,391,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at $2,826,049,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 27,361.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 3,411,700 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of 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 increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 26.2% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,087,545,000 after purchasing an additional 1,612,413 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group raised its holdings in Salesforce by 45.8% in the 2nd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 3,931,945 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,072,202,000 after purchasing an additional 1,234,969 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the topic of several research analyst reports. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $260.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Northland Securities lifted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $264.00 to $267.00 and gave the company 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 report on Friday, November 28th. Finally, Mizuho set a $340.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. One 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $323.57.

Salesforce Stock Performance

CRM opened at $193.89 on Tuesday. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $185.73 and a twelve month high of $331.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $181.67 billion, a PE ratio of 25.89, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $242.79 and its 200 day moving average price 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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The business’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.41 EPS. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were paid 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 payout ratio is 22.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 96,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $780,309,155.22. This trade represents a 3.31% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,761,499.28. The trade was a 22.15% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.