Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. Buys 155,056 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 10.4% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,652,568 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 155,056 shares during the period. Salesforce comprises about 1.9% of Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $391,659,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter valued at $2,826,049,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 3,411,700 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1,729.6% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,973,141 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $538,020,000 after acquiring an additional 1,865,297 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its position in Salesforce by 26.2% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,087,545,000 after acquiring an additional 1,612,413 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group increased its stake in Salesforce by 45.8% during the second 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 during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CRM. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Salesforce from $315.00 to $280.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 28th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.57.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of 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 company 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 firm’s 50 day moving average price is $243.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $245.22. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $187.12 and a 52-week 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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The firm’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.41 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were paid a dividend of $0.416 per share. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In related news, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,803,314.90. This trade represents a 49.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director G Mason Morfit bought 96,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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.

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.