VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Takes Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 168,901 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $46,058,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Salesforce during the first quarter valued at $2,039,196,000. Longview Partners Guernsey LTD bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 1st quarter valued at about $467,944,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Salesforce by 1,744.0% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,820,262 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $488,486,000 after acquiring an additional 1,721,550 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Salesforce by 1.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 87,913,628 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $23,592,501,000 after acquiring an additional 1,383,942 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the first quarter valued at approximately $345,100,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 3,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were bought at an average price of $254.66 per share, for a total transaction of $865,844.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 3,824 shares in the company, valued at $973,819.84. This represents a 801.89% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $234.64, for a total transaction of $527,940.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,794,931,019.44. This trade represents a 0.02% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 78,750 shares of company stock valued at $19,521,495. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Northland Capmk cut Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price target on Salesforce from $255.00 to $221.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $260.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Oppenheimer reduced their price target on Salesforce from $370.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. Twenty-five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $325.23.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM opened at $243.27 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $231.59 billion, a PE ratio of 35.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The business’s 50-day moving average is $244.38 and its two-hundred day moving average is $257.77. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $226.48 and a 1 year high of $369.00.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, September 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $10.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.14 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 16.87% and a return on equity of 13.27%. Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company 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. Research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 17th were paid a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 17th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.13%.

About Salesforce

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.