16,730 Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Sold by Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co.

Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. decreased its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 32.4% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 34,870 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 16,730 shares during the quarter. Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $8,005,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at $11,396,844,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Salesforce by 130.2% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,363,096,000 after purchasing an additional 7,160,302 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth $1,914,086,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $844,928,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the director directly owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,486,958.84. The trade was 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 currently owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of CRM opened at $214.62 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $238.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $198.60. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $146.32 and a 12 month high of $269.11. The company has a market capitalization of $176.63 billion, a PE ratio of 19.56, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.24. 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 (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.04%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CRM. Morgan Stanley set a $315.00 target price on Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Citigroup reissued a “market outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, October 20th. Argus upped their price objective on Salesforce from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 31st. Barclays lowered shares of Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “positive” rating in a report on Monday, October 12th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.98.

Salesforce Profile

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company best known for customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Its platform helps businesses manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce and customer data, and includes products such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Data Cloud and Agentforce.

The company also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data analytics and visualization, and MuleSoft for connecting applications and data. Salesforce’s products are used by organizations across a range of industries and are available to customers around the world.

Founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff and other co-founders, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco.