Swedbank AB Sells 428,079 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Swedbank AB cut its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 14.2% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 2,596,779 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 428,079 shares during the period. Salesforce accounts for about 0.6% of Swedbank AB’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Swedbank AB’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $615,437,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. KDT Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. KDT Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $260,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Scott & Selber Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Scott & Selber Inc. now owns 5,850 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,595,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the period. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management now owns 607 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $166,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Salesforce by 2.3% in the second quarter. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,716 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $468,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the period. Finally, Lifeworks Advisors LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 2.9% in the second quarter. Lifeworks Advisors LLC now owns 1,420 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $387,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $440.00 to $400.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Truist Financial cut their target price on Salesforce from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Arete Research raised shares of Salesforce to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $326.68.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $263.53 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $247.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $251.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $246.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $221.96 and a 12-month high of $367.09.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 18th will be given a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 22.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.01, for a total value of $582,772.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,085,216,004.71. This trade represents a 0.02% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $32,803,314.90. This trade represents a 49.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 168,534 shares of company stock valued at $39,985,777. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.