Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 3,409,450 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC reduced its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 99.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 14,719 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 3,409,450 shares during the quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $3,488,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rockland Trust Co. increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 1,145.6% in the third quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 13,066 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,097,000 after buying an additional 12,017 shares in the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Salesforce by 98.3% in the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 21,455 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,085,000 after acquiring an additional 10,633 shares during the period. Midwest Trust Co increased its holdings in Salesforce by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 187,071 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $44,336,000 after acquiring an additional 4,233 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in Salesforce by 15.1% during the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 467,551 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $113,420,000 after acquiring an additional 61,270 shares during the period. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. raised its position in Salesforce by 42.2% during the third quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 281,054 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $66,610,000 after acquiring an additional 83,403 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the subject of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America cut their price objective on Salesforce from $325.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, December 29th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Salesforce from $325.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Salesforce from $235.00 to $210.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $283.06.

Insider Activity

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. The trade was a 22.15% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director G Mason Morfit bought 96,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $780,309,155.22. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat on profitability and AI traction — Non‑GAAP EPS came in at $3.81 (well above consensus) and management highlighted Agentforce/AI monetization as a growth driver, supporting the view that AI is adding commercial value. Revenue In Line With Expectations
• Positive Sentiment: Big capital‑return program — Salesforce raised its dividend and authorized a $50B buyback, signaling management confidence and improving EPS leverage if executed. That buyback is a clear near‑term support for the share price. AI Bet & Buyback
• Neutral Sentiment: Long‑term targets updated — Management lifted multiyear ambitions (targeting roughly $63B revenue by FY2030) and kept FY27 EPS guidance in a tight range; this supports the long‑term bull case but leaves near‑term pacing ambiguous. FY30 Target & Guidance
• Negative Sentiment: Near‑term guidance and metrics disappointed some — cRPO and other cloud momentum measures were only in‑line, and commentary implied a mid‑year slowdown before AI‑driven reacceleration, which hurt investor confidence. Jefferies on Near‑Term Slowdown
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst cuts and mixed ratings — Several banks trimmed price targets (examples: Sanford Bernstein, TD Cowen, RBC, BMO, Barclays, DA Davidson) or issued neutral/underperform stances, increasing short‑term selling pressure as models were reset. Analyst Revisions
• Negative Sentiment: Investor skepticism over AI impact persists — Coverage highlights that some investors still worry AI could compress SaaS economics despite management’s assurances, creating continued volatility in CRM shares. 3 Reasons Earnings Failed to Impress

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $194.47 on Monday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $223.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $238.38. The company has a market cap of $182.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.90, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.76. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $174.57 and a one year high of $303.07.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The business had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.78 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. This is a boost from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 21.25%.

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.