Salesforce Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:CRM)

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Investors bought 157,342 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 144% compared to the typical daily volume of 64,415 put options.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Enterprise validation for Agentforce — World Economic Forum will use an Agentforce‑powered assistant at Davos, boosting visibility for Salesforce’s agentic platform and enterprise adoption case. World Economic Forum and Salesforce Empower Global Leaders
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial expansion in healthcare — Viz.ai announced a real‑time clinical intelligence integration for Agentforce Life Sciences, which can increase addressable market and use‑case monetization if adoption scales. Viz.ai and Salesforce Collaborate
• Positive Sentiment: Product traction and bullish commentary — Slackbot revamp is generally available and on‑air analysts/guests (Phil Palumbo) call Salesforce “nothing broken” about its business at a discounted price, supporting a recovery narrative. Salesforce makes revamped Slackbot generally available Palumbo video
• Neutral Sentiment: Large institutional holders remain heavily invested (Vanguard, State Street, etc.), which provides ownership stability but is not an immediate catalyst.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst and valuation write‑ups note attractive long‑term cash‑flow multiples and Agentforce upside; useful for longer‑term investors but not a short‑term trigger. Seeking Alpha piece
• Negative Sentiment: Unusually heavy put buying — roughly 157k put contracts traded (about +144% vs. normal), a direct bearish signal that likely amplified selling and hedging flows intraday.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — Director Neelie Kroes sold ~3,893 shares (~$929k) on Jan. 14; insider sales often add short‑term pressure even when not indicative of company fundamentals. SEC Form 4
• Negative Sentiment: Sector/AI fears — coverage and headlines (e.g., “Claude Code” and MarketBeat pieces) argue agentic AI could cannibalize high‑margin human‑driven SaaS revenue, fueling sentiment that CRM names may lose licensing growth. AOL: Why Salesforce stock is already down MarketBeat: 3 Stocks to Avoid

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 96,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at $780,309,155.22. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 7,299 shares in the company, 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 have sold a total of 152,177 shares of company stock valued at $36,015,774 in the last ninety days. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Painted Porch Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 260.0% in the second quarter. Painted Porch Advisors LLC now owns 90 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX purchased a new position in Salesforce in the third quarter valued at about $28,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $405.00 to $398.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, December 9th. DA Davidson lifted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Salesforce from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. One research 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 given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.51.

Salesforce Stock Down 2.8%

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $227.10 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $212.79 billion, a PE ratio of 30.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $249.36 and a 200-day moving average of $250.60. Salesforce has a 52-week low of $221.96 and a 52-week high of $367.09.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $10.27 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.41 EPS. The business’s quarterly 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, analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were issued a dividend of $0.416 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

Salesforce Company 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.