BNP Paribas Purchases 73,840 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

BNP Paribas lifted its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 89.5% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 156,303 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 73,840 shares during the period. Salesforce makes up about 1.4% of BNP Paribas’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. BNP Paribas’ holdings in Salesforce were worth $42,656,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 88,823,481 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $24,221,275,000 after acquiring an additional 909,853 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Salesforce by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,260,918 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,452,998,000 after purchasing an additional 776,300 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 0.6% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,873,900 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,669,224,000 after purchasing an additional 114,504 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter valued at about $2,826,049,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in Salesforce by 6.9% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 9,258,518 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,484,616,000 after buying an additional 600,386 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CRM. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $325.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $265.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, Mizuho set a $340.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday. Twenty-eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $326.46.

Salesforce Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $264.02 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $244.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $252.26. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $221.96 and a twelve month high of $367.09. The firm has a market cap of $247.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.25, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.86 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.41 EPS. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.416 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total value of $31,605,171.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,803,314.90. This trade represents a 49.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director G Mason Morfit bought 96,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $260.58 per share, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. This represents a 3.31% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 179,784 shares of company stock worth $42,742,994 over the last 90 days. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Salesforce Profile

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.