Principal Financial Group Inc. Reduces Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 3.9% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,618,982 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 65,468 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $383,699,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth $27,000. Quaker Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 208.6% in 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 in the last quarter. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Country Trust Bank increased its stake in Salesforce by 658.8% in the 2nd quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 112 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. BTIG Research initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. They set a “buy” rating and a $335.00 price target on the stock. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $330.00 to $338.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report 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, Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “underperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.51.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $212.10 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $246.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $247.45. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $208.78 and a 12 month high of $349.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market cap of $198.74 billion, a PE ratio of 28.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.26.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.86 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 in the prior year, the firm posted $2.41 EPS. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were issued a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.16%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total value of $31,598.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,085,096,889. This trade represents a 0.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. This represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 138,677 shares of company stock worth $32,566,029. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

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.