Smith Anglin Financial LLC Grows Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Smith Anglin Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 8.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,816 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 147 shares during the quarter. Smith Anglin Financial LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $495,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Coign Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Coign Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,183 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $586,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Staley Capital Advisers Inc. grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Staley Capital Advisers Inc. now owns 3,343 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $897,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. KDT Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. KDT Advisors LLC now owns 967 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $260,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Liberty One Investment Management LLC now owns 3,165 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $849,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Command Advisory Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 7.3% in the 1st quarter. First Command Advisory Services Inc. now owns 572 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $154,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Salesforce from $365.00 to $325.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 4th. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $430.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on Salesforce from $400.00 to $340.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Bank of America reduced their price target on Salesforce from $350.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price target on Salesforce from $440.00 to $400.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $332.58.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $243.58 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $249.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $261.46. The stock has a market cap of $231.89 billion, a PE ratio of 35.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.22. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $226.48 and a 1 year high of $369.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.56 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter 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. Sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 3,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 9th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $254.66 per share, with a total value of $865,844.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 3,824 shares in the company, valued at $973,819.84. The trade was a 801.89% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.38, for a total value of $606,105.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,208,738,995.98. This trade represents a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 78,750 shares of company stock valued at $19,955,745. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

About Salesforce

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.