Nordea Investment Management AB Increases Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,300,371 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 28,768 shares during the quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $546,453,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 88,823,481 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $24,221,275,000 after buying an additional 909,853 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Salesforce by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,260,918 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,452,998,000 after acquiring an additional 776,300 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 0.6% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,873,900 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,669,224,000 after acquiring an additional 114,504 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter valued at $2,826,049,000. Finally, Amundi grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 26.2% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,087,545,000 after purchasing an additional 1,612,413 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the sale, the insider owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,803,314.90. The trade was a 49.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,085,096,889. The trade was a 0.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 152,784 shares of company stock worth $36,173,287 over the last quarter. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Wall Street Zen raised Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 28th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Mizuho set a $340.00 price objective on Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $326.50.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $259.29 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $250.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $251.35. The company has a market cap of $242.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.62, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $221.96 and a one year high of $367.09.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.41 EPS. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. On average, research analysts predict 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, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were paid a $0.416 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 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.