Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Investors purchased 103,597 call options on the company. This is an increase of 52% compared to the average volume of 68,097 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on CRM. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price target on Salesforce from $350.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $430.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Salesforce from $275.00 to $265.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Salesforce from $335.00 to $280.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Twenty-five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $325.23.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.01, for a total transaction of $582,772.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,085,216,004.71. The trade was a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders sold 78,750 shares of company stock worth $19,424,880 over the last quarter. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Coign Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Coign Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,183 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $586,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Staley Capital Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Staley Capital Advisers Inc. now owns 3,343 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $897,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. KDT Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. KDT Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $260,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC now owns 3,165 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $849,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Command Advisory Services Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. First Command Advisory Services Inc. now owns 572 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $154,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $255.10 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Salesforce has a fifty-two week low of $226.48 and a fifty-two week high of $369.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $246.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $257.99. The firm has a market cap of $242.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.08, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.19.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, September 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.13. Salesforce had a return on equity of 13.27% and a net margin of 16.87%.The company had revenue of $10.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.14 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.56 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2026 guidance at 11.330-11.370 EPS. Q3 2026 guidance at 2.840-2.860 EPS. Analysts predict that Salesforce will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

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.