Strs Ohio Acquires Shares of 374,393 Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 374,393 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $100,472,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 87,913,628 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $23,592,501,000 after purchasing an additional 1,383,942 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 6.9% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 9,258,518 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,484,616,000 after purchasing an additional 600,386 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 5.1% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 9,014,148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,419,037,000 after purchasing an additional 437,435 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 8,658,132 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,894,673,000 after purchasing an additional 602,445 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 8,598,989 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,874,900,000 after purchasing an additional 114,278 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $257.02, for a total transaction of $578,295.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,061,511,978.42. This trade 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 can be accessed through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 3,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $254.66 per share, with a total value of $865,844.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 3,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $973,819.84. This trade represents a 801.89% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 68,327 shares of company stock valued at $17,450,793. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Salesforce from $365.00 to $325.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $430.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Northland Securities dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $423.00 to $396.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Stephens dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $311.00 to $309.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Macquarie restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $290.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, September 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $332.58.

Salesforce Stock Down 3.7%

CRM opened at $242.62 on Thursday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $226.48 and a 1-year high of $369.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $230.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.26, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.22. The business has a 50 day moving average of $254.29 and a 200-day moving average of $265.66.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $10.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.14 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 13.27% and a net margin of 16.87%.Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $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. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 17th will be given a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 17th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.13%.

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.