Salesforce Inc. $CRM Position Boosted by Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG

Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG lifted its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 3.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 239,810 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,979 shares during the period. Salesforce makes up 1.0% of Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG’s holdings, making the stock its 25th largest position. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $55,053,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CRM. 55 North Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Salesforce by 9.0% during the third quarter. 55 North Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,677 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $385,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the period. Cypress Capital LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce in the third quarter worth about $208,000. Commonwealth Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce in the third quarter worth about $207,000. Ballast Inc. raised its position in Salesforce by 2.8% in the third quarter. Ballast Inc. now owns 10,014 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,299,000 after acquiring an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Net Worth Advisory Group lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 53.3% in the 3rd quarter. Net Worth Advisory Group now owns 5,297 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,254,000 after acquiring an additional 1,842 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce will pay $47.50 per Braze share, a premium of approximately 58%, adding a customer-engagement platform that uses real-time customer behavior data. The transaction could strengthen Salesforce’s marketing capabilities, broaden its AI product portfolio and create cross-selling opportunities across its enterprise customer base. Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Braze
• Positive Sentiment: Braze’s acquisition puts the value of customer-engagement and marketing software in focus, lifting sentiment toward the broader sector. For Salesforce, the deal supports its effort to make AI more useful by combining customer data, marketing automation and its CRM platform. Braze rallies as Salesforce acquisition puts marketing software in focus
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce’s Informatica acquisition continues to be viewed as a potential data advantage that could improve its AI offerings and generate additional revenue. Investors are likely to focus on whether these data and software investments translate into faster, more sustainable growth. Informatica Boosts Salesforce’s Data Edge
• Negative Sentiment: The all-cash Braze transaction is pressuring Salesforce shares because investors are questioning whether the premium is justified and whether management can integrate another major platform while maintaining growth and margins. The acquisition also increases near-term capital-allocation and execution risk. Salesforce stock falls as Braze deal raises acquisition concerns

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $289.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, September 18th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Salesforce from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $160.00 to $285.00 in a report on Monday, October 12th. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $253.00 to $166.00 in a report on Monday, June 29th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 target price (up from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.40.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of CRM traded down $0.49 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $241.96. The stock had a trading volume of 3,773,521 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,468,493. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $232.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $195.29. The firm has a market cap of $199.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The firm’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.91 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 16.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 5,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Salesforce Profile

Salesforce, Inc (NYSE: CRM) is a global enterprise software company that provides cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) technology. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data, analytics and interactions with customers across digital and traditional channels.

The company’s products include Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud and Data Cloud. Salesforce also offers Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and Slack for workplace collaboration.