Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 10.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,652,568 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 155,056 shares during the period. Salesforce accounts for about 1.9% of Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. owned about 0.17% of Salesforce worth $391,659,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Quaker Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 208.6% in the second quarter. Quaker Wealth Management LLC now owns 126 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares during the period. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Country Trust Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 658.8% during the 2nd quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 1,936 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was bought at an average price of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the acquisition, the director owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This represents a 22.15% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 96,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $260.58 per share, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. This trade represents a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $191.48 on Friday. 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 50 day moving average price of $243.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $245.22. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $187.12 and a 52 week high of $333.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $179.42 billion, a PE ratio of 25.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.27.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The company had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.41 earnings per share. Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter 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 research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were paid a dividend of $0.416 per share. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.16%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the subject of several research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased 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. Oppenheimer decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Evercore dropped their price target on Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Citigroup downgraded Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.57.

Salesforce Company 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.