Acorn Financial Advisory Services Inc. ADV Sells 176 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Acorn Financial Advisory Services Inc. ADV trimmed its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,151 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 176 shares during the quarter. Acorn Financial Advisory Services Inc. ADV’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,405,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Diversified Trust Co grew its position in Salesforce by 30.1% during the second quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 27,786 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $7,577,000 after buying an additional 6,430 shares during the period. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. grew its position in Salesforce by 4.6% during the second quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 59,970 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $16,353,000 after buying an additional 2,644 shares during the period. AG2R LA Mondiale Gestion D Actifs bought a new stake in Salesforce during the first quarter valued at approximately $9,367,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its position in Salesforce by 31.2% during the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 344,887 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $93,016,000 after buying an additional 81,916 shares during the period. Finally, Wesbanco Bank Inc. boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 6.8% in the second quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 110,968 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $30,260,000 after purchasing an additional 7,091 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.79, for a total value of $539,527.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,856,275,610.09. This represents a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 76,500 shares of company stock valued at $19,049,130 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $404.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Macquarie restated a “neutral” rating and set a $290.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $260.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Twenty-six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $331.89.

Salesforce Price Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $248.77 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $236.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.16, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $244.61 and its 200 day moving average is $258.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $226.48 and a 52-week high of $369.00.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $10.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.14 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 16.87% and a return on equity of 13.27%. Salesforce’s revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.56 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2026 guidance at 11.330-11.370 EPS. Q3 2026 guidance at 2.840-2.860 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 17th were paid a dividend of $0.416 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 17th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.13%.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology that brings companies and customers together worldwide. The company's service includes sales to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, gain insights through analytics and artificial intelligence, and deliver quotes, contracts, and invoices; and service that enables companies to deliver trusted and highly personalized customer support at scale.