Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stock: Talbot Financial LLC Cuts Position

Talbot Financial LLC cut its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 88,085 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 10,458 shares during the period. Salesforce comprises approximately 1.4% of Talbot Financial LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd biggest holding. Talbot Financial LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $20,222,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CRM. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth $25,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Costello Asset Management INC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 410.3% during the 1st quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gables Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. CLSA initiated coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Monday, July 20th. They set a “hold” rating and a $165.00 target price on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Susquehanna started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.40.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE:CRM traded up $1.41 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $242.11. The stock had a trading volume of 2,518,164 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,493,896. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $231.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $194.89. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $146.32 and a 12-month high of $269.11. The stock has a market cap of $199.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.26.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.91 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th were issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.04%.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc (NYSE: CRM) is a global enterprise software company that provides cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) technology. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data, analytics and interactions with customers across digital and traditional channels.

The company’s products include Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud and Data Cloud. Salesforce also offers Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and Slack for workplace collaboration.