Value Partners Investments Inc. Purchases New Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Value Partners Investments Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 189,059 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $44,785,000. Salesforce makes up about 3.7% of Value Partners Investments Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 4.0% during the second quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 87,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,814,000 after buying an additional 3,387 shares during the last quarter. Grant Private Wealth Management Inc purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,458,000. Advyzon Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 57.4% in the 2nd quarter. Advyzon Investment Management LLC now owns 1,884 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $514,000 after acquiring an additional 687 shares in the last quarter. Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC boosted its stake in Salesforce by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC now owns 206,614 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $56,342,000 after purchasing an additional 16,176 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Country Club Bank boosted its stake in Salesforce by 337.8% during the 3rd quarter. Country Club Bank now owns 20,632 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,057,000 after purchasing an additional 15,919 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on CRM shares. KeyCorp decreased their price target on Salesforce from $440.00 to $400.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 17th. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 1st. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. One equities 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 MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $326.68.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of CRM stock opened at $263.53 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $221.96 and a 12 month high of $367.09. The stock has a market cap of $246.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $247.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $251.58.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.86 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $10.26 billion for 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.41 EPS. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, Director G Mason Morfit bought 96,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were bought at an average price of $260.58 per share, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.01, for a total transaction of $582,772.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at $3,085,216,004.71. This represents a 0.02% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 168,534 shares of company stock valued at $39,985,777 over the last quarter. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.