General American Investors Co. Inc. Trims Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

General American Investors Co. Inc. lowered its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 33.3% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 40,000 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 20,000 shares during the quarter. General American Investors Co. Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $9,480,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the third quarter worth $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Quaker Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 208.6% during the 2nd quarter. Quaker Wealth Management LLC now owns 126 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares during the period. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Country Trust Bank grew its holdings in Salesforce by 658.8% in the second quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, Director G Mason Morfit bought 96,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. This trade represents a 3.31% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,803,314.90. The trade was a 49.07% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 143,177 shares of company stock worth $33,714,069. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on CRM shares. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Barclays raised their price target on Salesforce from $330.00 to $338.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Salesforce from $340.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.51.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM opened at $229.41 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $247.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $248.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $214.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.26. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $218.96 and a 52-week high of $367.09.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were issued a dividend of $0.416 per share. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

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.