J. L. Bainbridge & Co. Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

J. L. Bainbridge & Co. Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 10.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 59,803 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 6,658 shares during the quarter. Salesforce accounts for about 1.2% of J. L. Bainbridge & Co. Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd largest position. J. L. Bainbridge & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $14,173,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Painted Porch Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 260.0% during the 2nd quarter. Painted Porch Advisors LLC now owns 90 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter valued at $27,000. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC grew its position in Salesforce by 314.8% during the first quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 112 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc increased its stake in Salesforce by 383.3% in the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 116 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maseco LLP bought a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth about $34,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.56, for a total value of $575,010.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at $3,044,121,084.76. This trade represents a 0.02% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 96,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $260.58 per share, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. This trade represents a 3.31% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 166,284 shares of company stock worth $39,439,229 over the last quarter. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $316.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Salesforce from $340.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $326.68.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $266.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $221.96 and a one year high of $367.09. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $249.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $251.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $249.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.25.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The firm had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.41 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. Analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.416 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 22.16%.

About Salesforce

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.