Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stock: Montaka Global Pty Ltd Cuts Holdings

Montaka Global Pty Ltd lowered its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 42.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 27,174 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 20,041 shares during the period. Salesforce accounts for approximately 2.5% of Montaka Global Pty Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest position. Montaka Global Pty Ltd’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $6,238,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Latitude Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. ABS Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $610,974,000. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Persistent Asset Partners Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CRM shares. KeyCorp started coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Monday, October 12th. They issued a “sector weight” rating on the stock. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, October 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $289.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, September 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.98.

Insider Activity

In other Salesforce news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the purchase, the director owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $213.58 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $237.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $198.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $175.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.32 and a 1 year high of $269.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.91 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th were paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.04%.

Salesforce Company 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.