Wesbanco Bank Inc. Sells 5,469 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Wesbanco Bank Inc. lowered its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 105,499 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 5,469 shares during the quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $25,003,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Quaker Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 208.6% during the second quarter. Quaker Wealth Management LLC now owns 126 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 242 shares during the period. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Country Trust Bank lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 658.8% in the second quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 112 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Salesforce from $280.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $430.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $430.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $260.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.57.

Salesforce Stock Performance

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

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 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 firm had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.41 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were paid a $0.416 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 22.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the sale, the insider owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,803,314.90. This trade represents a 49.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 96,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $780,309,155.22. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.