Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Bought by R Squared Ltd

R Squared Ltd boosted its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 203.9% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,474 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,344 shares during the quarter. Salesforce comprises 1.0% of R Squared Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest position. R Squared Ltd’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,765,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,039,196,000. Longview Partners Guernsey LTD acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the first quarter valued at approximately $467,944,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1,744.0% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,820,262 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $488,486,000 after purchasing an additional 1,721,550 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 87,913,628 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,592,501,000 after purchasing an additional 1,383,942 shares during the period. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the first quarter valued at approximately $345,100,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CRM shares. Citigroup lifted their price target on Salesforce from $275.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Canaccord Genuity Group decreased their price target on Salesforce from $350.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on Salesforce from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Salesforce from $275.00 to $265.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 11th. Twenty-five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $325.23.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $255.10 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $242.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.08, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.19. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average price of $246.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $257.99. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $226.48 and a 52 week high of $369.00.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.91 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $10.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.14 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 13.27% and a net margin of 16.87%.The firm’s revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $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. Equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 17th were paid a $0.416 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 (DPR) is 24.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 3,400 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 9th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $254.66 per share, for a total transaction of $865,844.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 3,824 shares in the company, valued at $973,819.84. This represents a 801.89% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $246.07, for a total value of $553,657.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,931,080,275.97. 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 ninety days, insiders sold 78,750 shares of company stock worth $19,424,880. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.