Krane Funds Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Krane Funds Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 171.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,197 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,172 shares during the period. Krane Funds Advisors LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,993,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rockland Trust Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1,145.6% in the third quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 13,066 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,097,000 after buying an additional 12,017 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its position in Salesforce by 98.3% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 21,455 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,085,000 after acquiring an additional 10,633 shares during the period. Midwest Trust Co boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 187,071 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $44,336,000 after acquiring an additional 4,233 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 15.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 467,551 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $113,420,000 after acquiring an additional 61,270 shares during the period. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 42.2% during the 3rd quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 281,054 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $66,610,000 after acquiring an additional 83,403 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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 agreed to acquire Momentum, a conversational?insights and revenue?orchestration platform — the deal is expected to extend Agentforce 360 and Slackbot capabilities to ingest and analyze third?party unstructured voice data, strengthening Salesforce’s AI/contact?center stack and product monetization potential. Salesforce Inc (CRM) Expands AI Capabilities With Momentum Acquisition
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst/industry coverage highlights a large “agentic AI” opportunity for Salesforce — pieces argue Agentforce and other AI initiatives could be a multi?year revenue tailwind if execution and GTM scale succeed. This supports a longer?term growth narrative even as near?term metrics are watched closely. Salesforce: Capitalizing On The Massive Agentic AI Opportunity
• Neutral Sentiment: Options market activity shows elevated interest and provides a read on short?term sentiment — Benzinga’s options deep dive notes concentrated positioning that can amplify moves into earnings, making volatility around the print more likely. Traders should watch skew and open interest for signals. Salesforce Options Trading: A Deep Dive into Market Sentiment
• Neutral Sentiment: Pre?earnings preview: Zacks notes AI/cloud demand could push Q4 revenue toward ~$11.2B and that prior cost cuts may boost EPS, but outcome hinges on product uptake and guidance for FY27 — results/guidance will likely drive the next leg of the move. Can AI and Cloud Strength Keep Salesforce’s Growth on Track in Q4?
• Negative Sentiment: Major broker price?target cuts surfaced ahead of Q4 results, which has pressured sentiment — several firms trimmed targets, signaling lower near?term expectations and increasing downside risk if guidance disappoints. Big Salesforce Price Target Cuts Ahead of Q4 Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Coverage flags that Salesforce’s AI agent push plus related job cuts are reframing the investment story toward automation?driven efficiency — investors may view workforce reductions and restructuring as a sign management is prioritizing margins, which can be read positively or negatively depending on growth outlook. Did Salesforce’s (CRM) AI Agent Push and Job Cuts Just Recast Its Automation-Driven Investment Narrative?
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling was flagged in a broader report on executives exiting positions — while not definitive, increased insider sales can add to short?term negative sentiment ahead of earnings. Sell… Sell… Sell… Another Eight Companies Insiders Are Exiting

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total value of $31,605,171.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,803,314.90. This trade represents a 49.07% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director G Mason Morfit bought 96,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $260.58 per share, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. This represents a 3.31% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on CRM. Barclays raised their target price on Salesforce from $330.00 to $338.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on Salesforce from $250.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Bank of America cut their price objective on Salesforce from $325.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $304.33.

Salesforce Price Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $178.00 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $229.16 and its 200 day moving average is $239.57. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $174.57 and a 12 month high of $313.70. The company has a market capitalization of $166.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The company’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.41 EPS. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 18th were paid a dividend of $0.416 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

Salesforce 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.