Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Sold by Stephens Inc. AR

Stephens Inc. AR reduced its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 35.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 67,757 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 37,760 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $16,081,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Scott & Selber Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Scott & Selber Inc. now owns 5,850 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,595,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management lifted its stake in Salesforce by 6.9% in the second quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management now owns 607 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $166,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 2.3% in the second quarter. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,716 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $468,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the period. Lifeworks Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 2.9% during the second quarter. Lifeworks Advisors LLC now owns 1,420 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $387,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BankPlus Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. BankPlus Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,264 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $617,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Goldman Sachs initiated coverage on Salesforce with a Buy, raising institutional interest and providing a near-term demand catalyst. The Goldman Sachs Group Initiates Coverage on Salesforce
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce made its revamped Slackbot (Agentforce/Slack integration) generally available, powered by Anthropic’s model — a concrete product rollout that advances monetization of AI agents inside Slack and could drive adoption and higher-value contracts. Salesforce releases updated Slackbot
• Positive Sentiment: Gryphon AI launched Gryphon ONE for Salesforce, expanding the ecosystem of AI tools that sit on Salesforce’s platform and potentially boosting platform stickiness and partner-driven revenue. Gryphon AI Introduces Gryphon ONE for Salesforce
• Neutral Sentiment: Marketbeat highlighted Salesforce as a cross-cloud AI winner, noting Agentforce traction and a consensus analyst view that sees upside — supportive for longer-term sentiment but not an immediate price mover. 5 AI Stocks Positioned to Win, No Matter What (CRM)
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce presented at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (transcript available) — useful investor visibility but procedural rather than market-moving by itself. Salesforce Presents at J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference Transcript
• Negative Sentiment: Coverage has also flagged growth concerns: Zacks notes Salesforce is leaning on Data 360 and AI agents to counter slowing revenue growth (moving toward single-digit growth), which can pressure multiples if execution slips. Can Salesforce’s Data 360 Push Drive Its Next Phase of Sales Growth?
• Negative Sentiment: Headline coverage pointing to an intra-day plunge is amplifying selling pressure; outlets are calling out why CRM shares are falling today, which can trigger momentum-driven exits. Why Salesforce shares are plunging today

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on CRM shares. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $430.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, October 17th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Salesforce from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $326.50.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $240.95 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $250.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $251.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The firm has a market cap of $225.77 billion, a PE ratio of 32.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.26. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $221.96 and a 1-year high of $367.09.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.86 by $0.39. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The business had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.41 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were issued a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.16%.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. The trade was a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,803,314.90. This trade represents a 49.07% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 150,534 shares of company stock valued at $35,636,954 over the last quarter. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.