Canoe Financial LP Boosts Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Canoe Financial LP boosted its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 16.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 244,683 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 34,420 shares during the period. Canoe Financial LP’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $57,990,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in CRM. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $8,582,000 after buying an additional 3,102 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $611,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $747,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 2,085 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $560,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its position in Salesforce by 33.8% during the first quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 3,190 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $856,000 after purchasing an additional 805 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the company. KeyCorp reduced their price target on Salesforce from $440.00 to $400.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $265.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 28th. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $326.68.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of CRM opened at $265.29 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $248.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $221.96 and a 1 year high of $367.09. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $248.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $251.77.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 96,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at $780,309,155.22. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 166,284 shares of company stock valued at $39,439,229. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Salesforce

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.