Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Bought by Calamos Advisors LLC

Calamos Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 23.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 323,742 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 62,172 shares during the period. Calamos Advisors LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $74,321,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth about $11,396,844,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% in 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 buying an additional 7,160,302 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 28.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 11,724,790 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,188,666,000 after buying an additional 2,561,923 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth approximately $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter valued at approximately $844,928,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about 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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, October 20th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.98.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CRM traded down $8.45 during trading on Friday, reaching $213.96. The stock had a trading volume of 6,708,466 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,142,592. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $239.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $198.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $146.32 and a 52 week high of $269.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $176.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.24.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were given a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.04%.

Insider Activity

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

Salesforce Company 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.