ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Cuts Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 4.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 916 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 45 shares during the quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $250,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Coign Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Coign Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,183 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $586,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Staley Capital Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Staley Capital Advisers Inc. now owns 3,343 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $897,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. KDT Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. KDT Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $260,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC now owns 3,165 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $849,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Command Advisory Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 7.3% in the 1st quarter. First Command Advisory Services Inc. now owns 572 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $154,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays decreased their target price on Salesforce from $347.00 to $316.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on Salesforce from $255.00 to $221.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their target price on Salesforce from $350.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Salesforce from $380.00 to $365.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Salesforce from $375.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Twenty-six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $332.58.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $240.25 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $228.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.19. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $246.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $260.19. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $226.48 and a 12-month high of $369.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $10.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.14 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 13.27% and a net margin of 16.87%.Salesforce’s revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.56 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2026 guidance at 11.330-11.370 EPS. Q3 2026 guidance at 2.840-2.860 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 17th will be issued a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 17th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 24.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 3,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 9th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $254.66 per share, with a total value of $865,844.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 3,824 shares in the company, valued at $973,819.84. The trade was a 801.89% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.77, for a total value of $597,982.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,165,738,224.67. This trade represents a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 81,000 shares of company stock valued at $20,357,213. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Profile

Salesforce, Inc provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology that brings companies and customers together worldwide. The company's service includes sales to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, gain insights through analytics and artificial intelligence, and deliver quotes, contracts, and invoices; and service that enables companies to deliver trusted and highly personalized customer support at scale.