Teacher Retirement System of Texas Cuts Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Teacher Retirement System of Texas lowered its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 24.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 294,240 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 92,712 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Salesforce were worth $69,735,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Maseco LLP purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Finally, Quaker Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 208.6% during the second quarter. Quaker Wealth Management LLC now owns 126 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Salesforce from $330.00 to $338.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “underperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Citigroup cut Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Monday, January 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $330.00 target price on the stock. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given 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 company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.51.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was bought at an average price of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed 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 value of $31,605,171.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares in the company, valued at $32,803,314.90. This trade represents a 49.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 145,427 shares of company stock worth $34,290,361 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM opened at $228.19 on Friday. 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 $213.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.26. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $247.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $249.30. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $218.96 and a 12-month high of $367.09.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. The firm had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.41 EPS. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. Research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were given a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s payout ratio 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.