Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC Has $1.43 Million Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC trimmed its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 54.2% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 6,045 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 7,157 shares during the period. Richard Bernstein Advisors LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,433,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Rockland Trust Co. increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 1,145.6% in the 3rd 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. boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 98.3% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 21,455 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,085,000 after buying an additional 10,633 shares during the period. Midwest Trust Co boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 4,233 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 61,270 shares during the period. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. boosted its position in Salesforce by 42.2% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce expanded its Agentforce AI platform with new partnerships and sector moves (including a Formula 1 fan companion agent) that show progress commercializing AI across verticals. Salesforce Expands Agentforce With Formula 1 Partnership And Finance Shift
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce launched Agentforce Contact Center to integrate AI, voice and CRM — a product move that targets high-value contact-center spend and could accelerate revenue per customer if adoption scales. Salesforce Launches Agentforce Contact Center to Unify AI, Voice and CRM
• Positive Sentiment: Third-party ecosystem activity: Pimly launched a Product Intelligence solution on Salesforce’s AgentExchange, which could increase platform stickiness and extend use cases for front-office AI workflows. Pimly Product Intelligence Launch May Deepen Salesforce Platform Usage And Value
• Neutral Sentiment: Competitive/market commentary: HubSpot (HUBS) reported strong subscription growth — a reminder of CRM competition that can influence investor sentiment around SaaS growth comps. HUBS Rides on Solid Subscriber Revenue Growth
• Neutral Sentiment: Opinion pieces argue Salesforce is undervalued after recent weakness, framing current weakness as a buying opportunity if management executes on AI monetization. Salesforce: The SaaSpocalypse Created A Rare Buying Opportunity
• Neutral Sentiment: Long-form analysis and sector context (e.g., Forbes piece on CRM’s path) highlight that sentiment about AI and guidance, not just fundamentals, is driving recent volatility. CRM Stock: Path To $260
• Negative Sentiment: Short interest rose ~14.8% in February to ~21.9M shares (about 2.4% of shares), signaling increased bearish positioning that can amplify near-term downside pressure. (SEC/market short-interest report)
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst price-target trims: Northland cut its target to $229 (market-perform) and DA Davidson cut its target to $200 while keeping Neutral — fresh PT reductions that reinforce cautious near-term expectations. Northland Cuts Price Target DA Davidson Lowers PT on Salesforce

Insider Activity

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 1,936 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at $2,761,499.28. The trade was a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,742,271.30. This represents a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho lowered their price target on Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Roth Mkm reduced their target price on Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $282.06.

Salesforce Trading Down 2.0%

NYSE:CRM opened at $194.78 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $179.78 billion, a PE ratio of 24.94, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $174.57 and a one year high of $296.05. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $214.43 and a 200-day moving average of $236.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.78 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued 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 is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 21.25%.

Salesforce Profile

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.