Russell Investments Group Ltd. Sells 22,835 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Russell Investments Group Ltd. decreased its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,501,892 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 22,835 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $344,014,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth about $11,396,844,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,363,096,000 after buying an additional 7,160,302 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,914,086,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth approximately $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth approximately $844,928,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.3%

CRM opened at $217.38 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $236.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $198.42. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $146.32 and a twelve month high of $269.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84. The firm has a market cap of $178.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.24.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.91 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.04%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of several recent research reports. Evercore reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, October 20th. Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Monness Crespi & Hardt increased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $222.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Citigroup restated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, October 20th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 16th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.98.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. The trade was a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Salesforce Company 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.