Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stock: Brighton Jones LLC Grows Position

Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 35.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 43,215 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,351 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $9,921,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Latitude Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 410.3% in the 1st quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Down 3.8%

CRM stock opened at $213.96 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $146.32 and a one year high of $269.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $176.09 billion, a PE ratio of 19.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84. The company has a fifty day moving average of $239.53 and a 200-day moving average of $198.64.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly 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. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.91 earnings per share. The business’s 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 expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 4,176 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 3.50% 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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on CRM shares. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, October 20th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 target price (up from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.98.

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.