SG Americas Securities LLC Buys 731,336 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1,144.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 795,225 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 731,336 shares during the period. Salesforce comprises approximately 0.6% of SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest position. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $188,468,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Painted Porch Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 260.0% in the second quarter. Painted Porch Advisors LLC now owns 90 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the period. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 314.8% in the 1st quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 112 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 383.3% during the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 116 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maseco LLP purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at $34,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of the company’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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,085,096,889. This represents a 0.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the acquisition, the director owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. The trade was a 22.15% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 157,284 shares of company stock worth $37,274,684 in the last quarter. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CRM. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. BTIG Research started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $335.00 price target for the company. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $316.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $327.74.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $266.06 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a market cap of $249.30 billion, a PE ratio of 35.52, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.26. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $221.96 and a 12-month high of $367.09. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $250.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $251.64.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.41 EPS. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. Analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

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.