Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 19.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 102,081 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,740 shares during the quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $24,193,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $2,826,049,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 27,361.5% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,424,169 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $933,737,000 after acquiring an additional 3,411,700 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1,729.6% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,973,141 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $538,020,000 after purchasing an additional 1,865,297 shares during the period. Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the third quarter worth $431,157,000. Finally, Amundi grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 26.2% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,087,545,000 after purchasing an additional 1,612,413 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $283.06.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the sale, the insider owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,803,314.90. The trade was a 49.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at $2,761,499.28. This represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $194.47 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $182.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.90, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.27. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $223.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $238.32. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $174.57 and a twelve month high of $303.07.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.28% and a net margin of 17.96%.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 earned $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 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

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

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 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.