Advocate Group LLC Buys New Shares in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Advocate Group LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 12,033 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,281,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CRM. Coign Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 1.7% in the first quarter. Coign Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,183 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $586,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Staley Capital Advisers Inc. raised its position in Salesforce by 1.1% in the first quarter. Staley Capital Advisers Inc. now owns 3,343 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $897,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. KDT Advisors LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 4.1% in the first quarter. KDT Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $260,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 1.2% in the first quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC now owns 3,165 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $849,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Command Advisory Services Inc. raised its position in Salesforce by 7.3% in the first quarter. First Command Advisory Services Inc. now owns 572 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $154,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on CRM. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $335.00 to $315.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $255.00 to $221.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $370.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Twenty-six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $331.89.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.79, for a total transaction of $539,527.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,856,275,610.09. This represents a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders have sold 78,750 shares of company stock worth $19,634,805 over the last quarter. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM opened at $242.11 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $226.48 and a one year 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. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $244.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $258.77. The stock has a market capitalization 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 (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.91 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 business had revenue of $10.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.14 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.56 earnings per share. Salesforce’s revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2026 guidance at 11.330-11.370 EPS. Q3 2026 guidance at 2.840-2.860 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 17th were paid 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 of this dividend was Wednesday, September 17th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 24.13%.

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.