Conning Inc. Boosts Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Conning Inc. boosted its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 9.9% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 20,051 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,805 shares during the quarter. Conning Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $5,468,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Louisbourg Investments Inc. raised its holdings in Salesforce by 10.6% in the second quarter. Louisbourg Investments Inc. now owns 29,157 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $7,951,000 after buying an additional 2,800 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH raised its holdings in Salesforce by 0.5% in the second quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH now owns 14,997 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,090,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the period. KFA Private Wealth Group LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 4.3% in the second quarter. KFA Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,324 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $361,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Williams & Novak LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $207,000. Finally, Aberdeen Group plc raised its holdings in Salesforce by 6.9% in the second quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 1,108,492 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $301,898,000 after buying an additional 72,010 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on CRM shares. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $370.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $430.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $404.00 to $405.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Twenty-six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $331.89.

Salesforce Stock Down 1.3%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $242.11 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $244.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $258.93. The firm has a market cap of $230.49 billion, a PE ratio of 35.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.19. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $226.48 and a 12-month high of $369.00.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 3,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 9th. The stock was purchased at an average price 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. This trade represents a 801.89% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.40, for a total transaction of $558,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,958,834,236.40. This represents a 0.02% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 78,750 shares of company stock valued at $19,634,805. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Salesforce 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.