Platform Technology Partners Sells 4,472 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Platform Technology Partners cut its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 62.8% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,648 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 4,472 shares during the quarter. Platform Technology Partners’ holdings in Salesforce were worth $628,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 4.0% in the second quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 87,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $23,814,000 after purchasing an additional 3,387 shares during the last quarter. Grant Private Wealth Management Inc purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,458,000. Advyzon Investment Management LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 57.4% in the 2nd quarter. Advyzon Investment Management LLC now owns 1,884 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $514,000 after buying an additional 687 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 78.0% during the 3rd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 43,186 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $10,235,000 after acquiring an additional 18,927 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC now owns 206,614 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $56,342,000 after acquiring an additional 16,176 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on CRM shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, January 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Citigroup downgraded Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Salesforce from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Macquarie increased their target price on Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.51.

Salesforce Trading Down 2.8%

Salesforce stock opened at $227.10 on Tuesday. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $221.96 and a 12-month high of $367.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $212.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.26. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $249.07 and a 200 day moving average of $250.01. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The firm had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.41 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were issued a $0.416 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 22.16%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 96,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $260.58 per share, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. This trade represents a 3.31% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of Salesforce 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 approximately $3,085,096,889. This trade represents a 0.00% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 149,927 shares of company stock worth $35,448,144. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Salesforce Company Profile

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.