Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Sold by Candriam S.C.A.

Candriam S.C.A. reduced its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 12.5% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 654,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 93,369 shares during the period. Salesforce accounts for about 0.8% of Candriam S.C.A.’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest position. Candriam S.C.A.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $155,037,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CRM. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter valued at about $2,826,049,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 27,361.5% during the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,424,169 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $933,737,000 after purchasing an additional 3,411,700 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1,729.6% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,973,141 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $538,020,000 after purchasing an additional 1,865,297 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 26.2% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,087,545,000 after buying an additional 1,612,413 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its stake in Salesforce by 45.8% in the 2nd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 3,931,945 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,072,202,000 after acquiring an additional 1,234,969 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $191.48 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $179.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.56, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $187.12 and a twelve month high of $333.82. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $243.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $245.07.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its 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 business had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.41 EPS. Salesforce’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.16%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on CRM shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $405.00 to $398.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, December 9th. DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on Salesforce from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 5th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $430.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Northland Securities upped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $264.00 to $267.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 4th. One investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $323.57.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was 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. The trade was a 49.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the sale, the director directly owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,742,271.30. This represents a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

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.