Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Bought by Plato Investment Management Ltd

Plato Investment Management Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 13.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 36,747 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,331 shares during the period. Salesforce accounts for about 0.6% of Plato Investment Management Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 27th largest holding. Plato Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $8,643,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CRM. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,826,049,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 27,361.5% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,424,169 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $933,737,000 after buying an additional 3,411,700 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 1,729.6% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,973,141 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $538,020,000 after buying an additional 1,865,297 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in Salesforce by 26.2% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,087,545,000 after acquiring an additional 1,612,413 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its position in Salesforce by 45.8% in the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 3,931,945 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,072,202,000 after acquiring an additional 1,234,969 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Citigroup lowered Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 5th. Mizuho set a $340.00 price target on Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. Macquarie Infrastructure boosted their price objective on Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Barclays increased their price objective on Salesforce from $330.00 to $338.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, December 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.57.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,742,271.30. This represents a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director G Mason Morfit bought 96,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $780,309,155.22. This trade represents a 3.31% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $191.48 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. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $243.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $245.22. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $187.12 and a 12 month high of $333.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $179.42 billion, a PE ratio of 25.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.27.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $2.86 by $0.39. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The company had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.41 EPS. Salesforce’s 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. Equities analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were issued a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 22.16%.

Salesforce 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.