State Street Corp Acquires 776,300 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

State Street Corp lifted its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 49,260,918 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 776,300 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp owned 0.05% of Salesforce worth $13,452,998,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Staley Capital Advisers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Staley Capital Advisers Inc. now owns 3,343 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $897,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. KDT Advisors LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 4.1% during the first quarter. KDT Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $260,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Scott & Selber Inc. grew its stake in Salesforce by 0.7% during the second quarter. Scott & Selber Inc. now owns 5,850 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,595,000 after buying an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management increased its holdings in Salesforce by 6.9% in the 2nd quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management now owns 607 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $166,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the period. Finally, Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,716 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $468,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on CRM shares. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday. Macquarie upped their target price on Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Citigroup lowered Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $325.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Northland Capmk lowered Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Twenty-eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $326.65.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $259.29 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $243.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $252.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $221.96 and a 1 year high of $367.09. The firm has a market cap of $242.96 billion, a PE ratio of 34.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.25.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th will be given a dividend of $0.416 per share. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 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, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at $780,309,155.22. This trade represents a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.79, for a total transaction of $539,527.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,856,275,610.09. This represents a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 182,034 shares of company stock valued at $43,297,979 over the last ninety days. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.