Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Newly Acquired by Providence First Trust Co

Providence First Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 4,640 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,065,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $11,396,844,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter worth approximately $1,914,086,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Salesforce by 130.2% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,363,096,000 after purchasing an additional 7,160,302 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter worth approximately $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $844,928,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce News Summary

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This trade represents a 28.66% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Company insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, October 12th. They issued a “sector weight” rating for the company. Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, October 20th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.98.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM traded down $8.45 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 market cap of $176.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.24. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $146.32 and a 12-month high of $269.11. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $239.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $198.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. 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, equities analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

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.