North Star Investment Management Corp. cut its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM – Free Report) by 55.9% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,021 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 7,630 shares during the quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,382,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Latitude Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Costello Asset Management INC lifted its position 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 worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. ABS Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $610,974,000. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Finally, Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.
Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce
Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:
- Positive Sentiment: AI monetization could improve. Salesforce plans to introduce usage-based pricing for AI-agent calls in November, potentially creating a new revenue stream beyond seat-based subscriptions. Its Agent Fabric upgrades are also designed to improve testing, evaluation and cost controls for customers. Salesforce Brings In Usage Based AI Billing With New Agent Fabric Controls
- Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s growth and cash generation remain investor positives. The company generated $14.4 billion in free cash flow during fiscal 2026, grew revenue about 11% in its latest quarter, and continues to integrate autonomous AI agents into its CRM platform. Salesforce vs. Datadog
- Positive Sentiment: Third-party adoption supports the AI ecosystem. Navatar is adding Claude-powered recommendations and workflow actions to its private-equity and M&A software built on Salesforce, highlighting expanding use cases for AI on the platform. Navatar Brings Claude-Powered Recommendations and Actions to CRM
- Neutral Sentiment: Valuation estimates received a modest lift. Updated views on Salesforce’s AI opportunity and its Braze relationship raised fair-value estimates, but the limited increase was not enough to overcome broader sector concerns. Salesforce Stock Sees Modest Fair Value Lift
- Negative Sentiment: Enterprise-software sentiment deteriorated. ServiceNow’s sharp decline after providing a slower contracted-revenue outlook, along with weakness in Fortinet and other software stocks, triggered sympathy selling in Salesforce and raised concerns about sector-wide growth durability. ServiceNow Tumbles as Slower Contract Growth Pressures Software Stocks
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
Several research firms have recently weighed in on CRM. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Yorkville Ives initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, October 5th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $290.00 price target on the stock. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $289.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, September 18th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their price target on Salesforce from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.98.
Check Out Our Latest Report on CRM
Salesforce Price Performance
Salesforce stock opened at $231.06 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $190.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.06, a PEG ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.26. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $269.11. 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 stock’s 50 day moving average price is $238.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $199.04.
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.91 EPS. Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter 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. On average, equities analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.
Salesforce Dividend Announcement
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.04%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce
In related news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 4,176 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director 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 ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.
Salesforce Company Profile
Salesforce, Inc (NYSE: CRM) is a global enterprise software company that provides cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) technology. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data, analytics and interactions with customers across digital and traditional channels.
The company’s products include Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud and Data Cloud. Salesforce also offers Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and Slack for workplace collaboration.
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