Park Avenue Securities LLC Sells 4,912 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Park Avenue Securities LLC decreased its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 14.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 28,990 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 4,912 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $6,871,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Painted Porch Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 260.0% in the 2nd quarter. Painted Porch Advisors LLC now owns 90 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Salesforce in the second quarter worth about $27,000. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 314.8% in the first quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 112 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 383.3% during the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 116 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maseco LLP bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $260.54 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $250.33 and a 200 day moving average of $251.70. 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 company has a market capitalization of $244.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.26. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $221.96 and a 52 week high of $367.09.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The business’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.41 EPS. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders 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 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on CRM shares. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on Salesforce from $280.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Salesforce from $340.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, BTIG Research initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. They set a “buy” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $327.74.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at $2,761,499.28. The trade was a 22.15% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total transaction of $31,598.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,085,096,889. This trade represents a 0.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 155,034 shares of company stock valued at $36,726,584 over the last 90 days. 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.