Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC Sells 3,606 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC reduced its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 29.4% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 8,660 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 3,606 shares during the period. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $2,052,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 15.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 467,551 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $113,420,000 after acquiring an additional 61,270 shares during the last quarter. AGF Management Ltd. raised its position in Salesforce by 42.2% during the third quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 281,054 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $66,610,000 after purchasing an additional 83,403 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 64.2% in the 3rd quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 30,111 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $7,149,000 after purchasing an additional 11,777 shares during the period. Alta Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 1,104.7% during the 3rd quarter. Alta Capital Management LLC now owns 13,493 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,198,000 after purchasing an additional 12,373 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gallacher Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the 3rd quarter valued at $785,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.8%

Salesforce stock opened at $191.48 on Friday. 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 $179.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.27. The business has a fifty day moving average of $243.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $245.35. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $187.12 and a twelve month high of $333.82.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly 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. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The firm had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.27 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.41 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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 $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.16%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director G Mason Morfit bought 96,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $780,309,155.22. This represents a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on CRM. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $430.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Macquarie Infrastructure upped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $315.00 to $280.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on Salesforce from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. One 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.57.

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.