Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Sold by Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co.

Key Points

• Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. cut its Salesforce stake by 32.4% in the third quarter, selling 16,730 shares and retaining 34,870 shares valued at about $8.0 million.
• Salesforce reported quarterly EPS of $5.90, beating the $3.27 analyst consensus, on revenue of $11.35 billion; revenue increased 10.8% year over year.
• Analysts have a “Moderate Buy” consensus on Salesforce, with an average price target of $278.98.

Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. decreased its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 32.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 34,870 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 16,730 shares during the period. Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $8,005,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $11,396,844,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,363,096,000 after purchasing an additional 7,160,302 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter worth $1,914,086,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter worth $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter worth $844,928,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $214.62 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $176.63 billion, a PE ratio of 19.56, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.24. The company's 50-day moving average is $238.69 and its 200-day moving average is $198.60. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. Salesforce's quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.91 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were given a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.04%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of Salesforce from $270.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Monness Crespi & Hardt lifted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $222.00 to $266.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Bank of America raised shares of Salesforce from an "underperform" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $160.00 to $285.00 in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Morgan Stanley set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Salesforce from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a report on Thursday, September 24th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $278.98.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This trade represents a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 3.50% of the company's stock.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company best known for customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Its platform helps businesses manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce and customer data, and includes products such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Data Cloud and Agentforce.

The company also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data analytics and visualization, and MuleSoft for connecting applications and data. Salesforce's products are used by organizations across a range of industries and are available to customers around the world.

Founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff and other co-founders, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco.

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