Vaughan David Investments LLC IL Boosts Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Vaughan David Investments LLC IL boosted its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 13.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 148,484 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,572 shares during the quarter. Vaughan David Investments LLC IL’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $35,191,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Scott & Selber Inc. grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Scott & Selber Inc. now owns 5,850 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,595,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management boosted its stake in Salesforce by 6.9% in the second quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management now owns 607 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $166,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 2.3% during the second quarter. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,716 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $468,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Lifeworks Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 2.9% during the second quarter. Lifeworks Advisors LLC now owns 1,420 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $387,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BankPlus Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,264 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $617,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,742,271.30. This represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $258.20, for a total value of $580,950.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at $3,075,567,632.20. The trade was a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 149,927 shares of company stock valued at $35,448,144. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on CRM shares. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Citigroup lowered shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $430.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, October 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, January 12th. They set a “buy” rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.51.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $225.12 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $249.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $250.01. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $221.96 and a 52 week high of $367.09. The company has a market cap of $210.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.06, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.86 by $0.39. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The firm had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.41 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. Research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were paid a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, founded in 1999 and headquartered in San Francisco, is a global provider of cloud-based software focused on customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise applications. The company popularized the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model for CRM and has built a broad portfolio of products designed to help organizations manage sales, service, marketing, commerce and analytics through a unified, cloud-first platform.

Core offerings include Sales Cloud for sales automation, Service Cloud for customer support, Marketing Cloud for digital marketing and engagement, and Commerce Cloud for e-commerce.