AustralianSuper Pty Ltd Trims Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

AustralianSuper Pty Ltd cut its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 98.0% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,752 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 183,541 shares during the quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,023,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,039,196,000. Longview Partners Guernsey LTD purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 1st quarter valued at $467,944,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 1,744.0% during the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,820,262 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $488,486,000 after purchasing an additional 1,721,550 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 87,913,628 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,592,501,000 after purchasing an additional 1,383,942 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in Salesforce during the first quarter worth about $345,100,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $256.13, for a total transaction of $576,292.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,050,910,680.23. This represents a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 78,750 shares of company stock worth $19,372,703 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $254.40 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $242.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.98, a PEG ratio of 2.14 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 has a 50-day simple moving average of $246.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $258.05. 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 (NYSE:CRM) last issued 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 company had revenue of $10.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.14 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 13.27% and a net margin of 16.87%.Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $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. On average, equities analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 17th were given a dividend of $0.416 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 17th. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.13%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on CRM shares. Roth Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Salesforce from $335.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $265.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Northland Securities lowered shares of Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $264.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Twenty-five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $325.23.

Salesforce Company Profile

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.