5,900 Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Sold by New Mexico Educational Retirement Board

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board lowered its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 12.6% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 40,786 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 5,900 shares during the quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $9,363,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. CFM Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter worth $274,000. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its position in Salesforce by 13.3% during the 3rd quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 48,789 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $11,200,000 after buying an additional 5,728 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its position in Salesforce by 51.4% during the 3rd quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 22,990 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,278,000 after buying an additional 7,808 shares in the last quarter. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp raised its stake in Salesforce by 5.6% in the third quarter. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp now owns 58,674 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $13,470,000 after buying an additional 3,098 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cherokee Insurance Co purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the third quarter valued at about $207,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $217.35 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $178.88 billion, a PE ratio of 19.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $236.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $198.48. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.32 and a 1 year high of $269.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.91 earnings per share. Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th were paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.04%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, October 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, October 21st. Finally, Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price objective (up from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.98.

More Salesforce News

These are some of the CRM news items that stood out recently:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s free cash flow supports substantial share buybacks and dividends, potentially sustaining shareholder returns. However, slower growth projections raise questions about how durable those payouts will be. CRM’s Cash Flow Strength: Can It Sustain Big Shareholder Returns?
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce scheduled its fiscal 2027 third-quarter earnings release and webcast. The announcement sets a date for investors to assess results and guidance but does not itself indicate a change in performance. Salesforce Announces Date of Third Quarter Fiscal 2027 Earnings Release and Webcast
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage highlighted Salesforce’s value-stock characteristics and argued its shares may be undervalued, while noting that leverage concerns persist. Salesforce Stock Looks Undervalued Even As Leverage Concerns Linger

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 4,176 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the sale, the director owned 5,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Profile

Salesforce, Inc. is a cloud-based software company best known for customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Its platform helps businesses manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce and customer data, and includes products such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Data Cloud and Agentforce. The company also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data analytics and visualization, and MuleSoft for connecting applications and data. Salesforce’s products are used by organizations across a range of industries and are available to customers around the world.