WealthShield Partners LLC Grows Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

WealthShield Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 32.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 14,384 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,525 shares during the period. WealthShield Partners LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $3,409,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 4.0% during the second quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 87,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $23,814,000 after purchasing an additional 3,387 shares in the last quarter. Grant Private Wealth Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,458,000. Advyzon Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Salesforce by 57.4% during the 2nd quarter. Advyzon Investment Management LLC now owns 1,884 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $514,000 after purchasing an additional 687 shares in the last quarter. CX Institutional increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 78.0% in the 3rd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 43,186 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $10,235,000 after acquiring an additional 18,927 shares during the period. Finally, Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC now owns 206,614 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $56,342,000 after purchasing an additional 16,176 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on CRM shares. BTIG Research initiated coverage on Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. They set a “buy” rating and a $335.00 target price for the company. DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 28th. Citizens Jmp reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $430.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Finally, Arete Research raised Salesforce to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. 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 given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.51.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of CRM opened at $228.02 on Monday. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $218.96 and a 52-week high of $367.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $247.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $248.68. The company has a market capitalization of $213.65 billion, a PE ratio of 30.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.26.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.41 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were given a dividend of $0.416 per share. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.16%.

Insider Activity

In other Salesforce news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,742,271.30. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total value of $31,598.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at $3,085,096,889. This represents a 0.00% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 143,177 shares of company stock worth $33,714,069 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

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.