Legal & General Group Plc Decreases Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 0.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 6,591,120 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 20,420 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.69% of Salesforce worth $1,562,095,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Country Trust Bank boosted its stake in Salesforce by 658.8% in the second quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Capital A Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 40.9% during the 2nd quarter. Capital A Wealth Management LLC now owns 155 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Finally, Kilter Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $42,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Salesforce news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,742,271.30. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were bought at an average price of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Stock Down 1.6%

Salesforce stock opened at $198.81 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $215.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $236.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $174.57 and a 1-year high of $296.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $183.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.78 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is a positive change from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 21.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on CRM shares. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $235.00 to $210.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $283.14.

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.