Meyer Handelman Co. Sells 2,265 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Meyer Handelman Co. reduced its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 28,496 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 2,265 shares during the quarter. Meyer Handelman Co.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $6,754,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total transaction of $31,598.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,085,096,889. This trade represents a 0.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 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 transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,803,314.90. This represents a 49.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 166,284 shares of company stock worth $39,439,229. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $260.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $405.00 to $398.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, Northland Securities lifted their target price on Salesforce from $264.00 to $267.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report 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 given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $326.68.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.3%

CRM opened at $266.09 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $249.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.25. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $221.96 and a 12 month high of $367.09. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $249.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $251.72. 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 released its earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The firm had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.41 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 18th will be given a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.16%.

About Salesforce

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.