Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stake Boosted by Westwood Holdings Group Inc.

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. grew its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 8.3% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 324,960 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,878 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $88,613,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 1st quarter valued at $2,039,196,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Salesforce by 1,729.6% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,973,141 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $538,020,000 after acquiring an additional 1,865,297 shares during the period. Longview Partners Guernsey LTD acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 1st quarter valued at about $467,944,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 1,744.0% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,820,262 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $488,486,000 after purchasing an additional 1,721,550 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 87,913,628 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $23,592,501,000 after purchasing an additional 1,383,942 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CRM shares. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday. Macquarie reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Northland Securities cut Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $264.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $404.00 to $405.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Twenty-five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $325.23.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total value of $31,598.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,085,096,889. This trade represents a 0.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 67,622 shares of company stock valued at $16,714,561. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Stock Up 1.4%

CRM stock opened at $243.86 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $232.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a 50-day moving average of $246.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $257.63. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $226.48 and a 52-week high of $369.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 17th. Salesforce’s payout ratio 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.