DAVENPORT & Co LLC Acquires 8,858 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

DAVENPORT & Co LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 34.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 34,397 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,858 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $8,160,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in Salesforce by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after buying an additional 3,102 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $611,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $747,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the period. Gabelli Funds LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 4.0% during the first quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 2,085 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $560,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the period. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL raised its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 805 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM opened at $265.29 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $248.57 billion, a PE ratio of 35.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.25. The business’s 50-day moving average is $248.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $251.77. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $221.96 and a 1 year high of $367.09. 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 (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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.41 EPS. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 of this dividend 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 is presently 22.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at $2,761,499.28. The trade was a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 96,000 shares of the company’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 purchase, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 166,284 shares of company stock worth $39,439,229 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $380.00 to $365.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Northland Capmk downgraded Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $265.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company 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, December 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $326.68.

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.