Veritas Asset Management LLP Buys 975,724 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Veritas Asset Management LLP lifted its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 47.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,039,568 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 975,724 shares during the quarter. Salesforce comprises about 7.7% of Veritas Asset Management LLP’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Veritas Asset Management LLP owned about 0.32% of Salesforce worth $720,378,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 909,853 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings 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 worth $13,452,998,000 after purchasing an additional 776,300 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 114,504 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,826,049,000. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 26.2% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,087,545,000 after acquiring an additional 1,612,413 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,742,271.30. This represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 acquisition, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. The trade was a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $212.10 on Monday. 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 has a market capitalization of $198.74 billion, a PE ratio of 28.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.27. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $208.78 and a fifty-two week high of $349.50. The company has a fifty day moving average of $246.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $247.38.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.41 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on CRM. Northland Securities boosted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $264.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Truist Financial reduced their price target on Salesforce from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Mizuho set a $340.00 price target on Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average 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.