Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. Sells 188 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 4.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,167 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 188 shares during the quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,136,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Carrera Capital Advisors lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 167.1% during the 2nd quarter. Carrera Capital Advisors now owns 2,182 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $596,000 after buying an additional 1,365 shares in the last quarter. PKO Investment Management Joint Stock Co boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 46.7% in the 2nd quarter. PKO Investment Management Joint Stock Co now owns 22,000 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,999,000 after purchasing an additional 7,000 shares during the last quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 9.5% during the 2nd quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 4,805 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,310,000 after buying an additional 415 shares during the period. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth approximately $5,377,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its stake in Salesforce by 6.8% in the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,724,424 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $742,923,000 after acquiring an additional 173,447 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.01, for a total transaction of $582,772.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,085,216,004.71. The trade was a 0.02% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders sold 78,750 shares of company stock valued at $19,424,880 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $254.93 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $226.48 and a 12 month high of $369.00. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $246.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $258.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $242.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.05, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.19.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $10.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.14 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 13.27% and a net margin of 16.87%.Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.56 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2026 guidance at 11.330-11.370 EPS. Q3 2026 guidance at 2.840-2.860 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 17th were issued a dividend of $0.416 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 17th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.13%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on CRM. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 11th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $404.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, Northland Securities cut shares of Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $264.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Twenty-five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $325.23.

Salesforce Profile

Salesforce, Inc provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology that brings companies and customers together worldwide. The company's service includes sales to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, gain insights through analytics and artificial intelligence, and deliver quotes, contracts, and invoices; and service that enables companies to deliver trusted and highly personalized customer support at scale.