Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC Has $57.70 Million Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC cut its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 42.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 243,441 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 182,479 shares during the period. Salesforce accounts for about 1.4% of Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest position. Locust Wood Capital Advisers LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $57,695,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Salesforce during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Maseco LLP bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter worth $34,000. Quaker Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 208.6% in the 2nd quarter. Quaker Wealth Management LLC now owns 126 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Spurstone Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 96,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $260.58 per share, with a total value 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. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,803,314.90. This represents a 49.07% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 147,677 shares of company stock valued at $34,865,371 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $221.52 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $248.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $249.45. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $218.96 and a 12 month high of $367.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $207.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.26. 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 (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share (EPS) 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.41 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter 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, analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $430.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, October 17th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, BTIG Research initiated coverage on Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, December 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $335.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.51.

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.