Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG Buys 7,585 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG increased its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 3.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 245,792 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,585 shares during the quarter. Salesforce makes up about 1.2% of Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $58,253,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CRM. KDT Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 4.1% in the first quarter. KDT Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $260,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Scott & Selber Inc. lifted its position in Salesforce by 0.7% during the second quarter. Scott & Selber Inc. now owns 5,850 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,595,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management grew its stake in Salesforce by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management now owns 607 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $166,000 after buying an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,716 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $468,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lifeworks Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Lifeworks Advisors LLC now owns 1,420 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $387,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total transaction of $31,598.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at $3,085,096,889. The trade was a 0.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,803,314.90. This represents a 49.07% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 161,784 shares of company stock valued at $38,357,182. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the subject of several research reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 28th. Barclays lifted their price target on Salesforce from $316.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Macquarie lifted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “underperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $260.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $326.68.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.4%

NYSE CRM opened at $264.78 on Friday. 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. The business’s 50-day moving average is $249.80 and its 200 day moving average is $251.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $248.10 billion, a PE ratio of 35.35, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.26.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 18th will be issued a $0.416 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 22.16%.

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.