Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC Increases Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 3.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 66,177 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,386 shares during the period. Osborne Partners Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $15,684,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CRM. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,826,049,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 worth $933,737,000 after purchasing an additional 3,411,700 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1,729.6% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,973,141 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $538,020,000 after purchasing an additional 1,865,297 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its holdings in Salesforce by 26.2% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,087,545,000 after buying an additional 1,612,413 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group raised its stake in Salesforce by 45.8% in the second 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 in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Trading Down 3.3%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $219.70 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $205.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.33, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.26. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $219.35 and a 1 year high of $367.09. The company’s fifty day moving average is $248.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $249.64.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its 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. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The business had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.41 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly 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. Analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were paid a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.16%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Mizuho set a $340.00 price objective on Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Salesforce from $280.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $330.00 to $338.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.51.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Friday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $258.20, for a total transaction of $580,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,075,567,632.20. This trade represents a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 147,677 shares of company stock valued at $34,865,371. 3.00% of the stock is 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.