Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Decreases Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 55.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,931 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 6,255 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,345,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in Salesforce by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after buying an additional 3,102 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Salesforce by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $611,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC increased its stake in 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. Fiera Capital Corp increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 49.0% in the first quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 931 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $250,000 after buying an additional 306 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Salesforce by 5.3% during the 1st quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,054 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $551,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

CRM opened at $228.27 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $244.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $255.09. The firm has a market cap of $217.31 billion, a PE ratio of 33.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.19. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $221.96 and a fifty-two week high of $369.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results 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 for 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%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.56 EPS. 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, equities analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 17th were issued a dividend of $0.416 per share. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 17th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.85, for a total value of $553,162.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,928,459,730.35. This represents a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 3,400 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 9th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $254.66 per share, with a total value of $865,844.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 3,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $973,819.84. This trade represents a 801.89% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 56,372 shares of company stock worth $13,941,863 over the last three months. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on Salesforce from $400.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on Salesforce from $347.00 to $316.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Twenty-five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $322.86.

Salesforce Company 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.