Independent Wealth Network Inc. Takes Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Independent Wealth Network Inc. purchased a new position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,507 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $594,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Salesforce by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after acquiring an additional 3,102 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $611,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $747,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 79.9% during the first quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 2,421 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $650,000 after purchasing an additional 1,075 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gabelli Funds LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 4.0% in the first quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 2,085 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $560,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the topic of several research reports. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Northland Securities upped their price target on Salesforce from $264.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $326.68.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.7%

CRM stock opened at $265.29 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $248.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $251.67. The stock has a market cap of $248.57 billion, a PE ratio of 35.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.25. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $221.96 and a fifty-two week high of $367.09.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.86 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. Salesforce’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.41 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In related news, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 96,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $780,309,155.22. This trade represents a 3.31% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,803,314.90. This represents a 49.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 168,534 shares of company stock valued at $39,985,777. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

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.