Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Has $6.70 Million Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. increased its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 24,550 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 446 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $6,695,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Coign Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.7% during the first quarter. Coign Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,183 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $586,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Staley Capital Advisers Inc. grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.1% during the first quarter. Staley Capital Advisers Inc. now owns 3,343 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $897,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. KDT Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 4.1% during the first quarter. KDT Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $260,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.2% during the first quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC now owns 3,165 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $849,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Command Advisory Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 7.3% during the first quarter. First Command Advisory Services Inc. now owns 572 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $154,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Trading Down 1.3%

CRM opened at $242.11 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $244.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $258.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market cap of $230.49 billion, a PE ratio of 35.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.19. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $226.48 and a twelve month high of $369.00.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, September 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $10.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.14 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 16.87% and a return on equity of 13.27%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.56 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2026 guidance at 11.330-11.370 EPS. Q3 2026 guidance at 2.840-2.860 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 9th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.13%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 76,500 shares of company stock worth $19,049,130 over the last ninety days. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $380.00 to $365.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 9th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $335.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, KeyCorp cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $440.00 to $400.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Twenty-six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $331.89.

Salesforce 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.