Meritage Portfolio Management Decreases Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Meritage Portfolio Management cut its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 3.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,857 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 61 shares during the quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $506,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after buying an additional 3,102 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $611,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $747,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 13.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,802,000 after acquiring an additional 1,725 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CVA Family Office LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 1,885 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $506,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 3,400 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 9th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $254.66 per share, for a total transaction of $865,844.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 3,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $973,819.84. This represents a 801.89% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.34, for a total value of $540,765.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,862,826,974.14. This represents a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 76,500 shares of company stock valued at $19,049,130. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on CRM shares. Macquarie reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $290.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Salesforce from $404.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $335.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $265.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Twenty-six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $331.89.

Salesforce Stock Down 1.3%

Shares of CRM opened at $242.11 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $230.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.19. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $226.48 and a 12-month high of $369.00. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $244.68 and its 200 day moving average price is $258.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 17th were given a dividend of $0.416 per share. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 17th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.