Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stock: Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Lowers Holdings

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 5.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 192,029 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 10,786 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $44,084,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CRM. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at about $11,396,844,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,914,086,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in Salesforce by 130.2% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,363,096,000 after purchasing an additional 7,160,302 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $844,928,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 21st. Freedom Broker lifted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $230.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, October 12th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, October 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.98.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s planned acquisition of AI voice-agent company Cresta could strengthen Agentforce and Service Cloud, adding capabilities for customer-service automation. The deal also brings acquisition costs and execution risks. Article: Salesforce Bets on AI Voice Agents With Planned Cresta Acquisition
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research upgraded Salesforce from “hold” to “strong buy,” a favorable analyst signal that may help counter near-term concerns. Article: Zacks Research rating
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce is expanding its Coworker offering and promoting a 21-times growth claim, but the report notes that no baseline is provided, making the figure difficult to assess. Article: Salesforce Expands Coworker’s Reach, but Its 21× Growth Claim Has No Baseline
• Neutral Sentiment: The company is extending Agent Fabric to help businesses manage AI agents across platforms. Its large customer base and reported 1.2 billion daily requests suggest potential, but investors still need evidence that the AI activity will translate into meaningful revenue. Article: Salesforce Stock: The 1 Number Investors Still Need to See
• Negative Sentiment: A broader software sell-off is weighing on CRM, while S&P Global Ratings cut Salesforce’s credit rating to A from A+. S&P cited acquisition spending and a $25 billion debt-financed buyback, which lifted pro forma net debt relative to EBITDA above its previous downgrade threshold. The rating action raises concerns about leverage and aggressive capital allocation. Article: S&P cuts Salesforce to A on rising acquisition debt and buybacks

Salesforce Trading Down 3.8%

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $213.96 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $239.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $198.64. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $269.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $176.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.50, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.24.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.91 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th were paid 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%.

Salesforce Profile

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.