Gateway Investment Advisers LLC Trims Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC decreased its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 60.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 54,212 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 81,554 shares during the quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $12,848,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,826,049,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 27,361.5% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,424,169 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $933,737,000 after purchasing an additional 3,411,700 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 1,729.6% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,973,141 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $538,020,000 after purchasing an additional 1,865,297 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its position in Salesforce by 26.2% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,087,545,000 after purchasing an additional 1,612,413 shares during the period. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 45.8% during the 2nd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 3,931,945 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,072,202,000 after buying an additional 1,234,969 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. BTIG Research initiated coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, December 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $335.00 target price on the stock. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $340.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $326.68.

Salesforce Price Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $253.68 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $237.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.26. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $249.78 and its 200 day moving average price is $251.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $221.96 and a 1 year high of $367.09.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The business had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.41 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 18th will be issued a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 96,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at $780,309,155.22. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 161,784 shares of company stock valued at $38,357,182. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.