SG Americas Securities LLC Grows Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1,144.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 795,225 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 731,336 shares during the quarter. Salesforce accounts for about 0.6% of SG Americas Securities LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest position. SG Americas Securities LLC owned approximately 0.08% of Salesforce worth $188,468,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Painted Porch Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 260.0% in the second quarter. Painted Porch Advisors LLC now owns 90 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in Salesforce by 314.8% during the 1st quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 112 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 383.3% during the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 116 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maseco LLP purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter worth $34,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director G Mason Morfit bought 96,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $260.58 per share, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. This 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, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 139,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,803,314.90. The trade was a 49.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 157,284 shares of company stock valued at $37,274,684. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Northland Securities raised their target price on shares of Salesforce from $264.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. DA Davidson lifted their target price on Salesforce from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $260.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $327.74.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $266.06 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $249.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $250.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $251.64. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $221.96 and a one year high of $367.09.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Salesforce 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.