Houlihan Financial Resource Group Ltd. Sells 6,355 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Houlihan Financial Resource Group Ltd. cut its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 54.9% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,227 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 6,355 shares during the quarter. Houlihan Financial Resource Group Ltd.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,239,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 4.0% in the second quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 87,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,814,000 after acquiring an additional 3,387 shares during the period. Grant Private Wealth Management Inc bought a new stake in Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,458,000. Advyzon Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 57.4% in the 2nd quarter. Advyzon Investment Management LLC now owns 1,884 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $514,000 after purchasing an additional 687 shares in the last quarter. CX Institutional boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 78.0% in the 3rd quarter. CX Institutional now owns 43,186 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $10,235,000 after purchasing an additional 18,927 shares during the period. Finally, Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC now owns 206,614 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $56,342,000 after purchasing an additional 16,176 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce Stock Down 2.6%

Shares of CRM opened at $233.30 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $221.96 and a 1 year high of $367.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $249.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $250.92. The firm has a market cap of $218.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.26.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were paid a $0.416 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 22.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In related news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total transaction of $31,598.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at $3,085,096,889. This represents a 0.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 96,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The shares were bought 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 owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at $780,309,155.22. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 152,177 shares of company stock valued at $36,015,774. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Goldman Sachs initiated coverage with a Buy and $330 price target, giving institutional validation to a recovery narrative and signaling upside vs. current levels. Goldman Sachs Assumes Coverage of Salesforce (CRM) Stock
• Positive Sentiment: Agentforce is getting marquee validation — the World Economic Forum will use an Agentforce?powered assistant at Davos, raising visibility for enterprise adoption and monetization potential. World Economic Forum and Salesforce Empower Global Leaders
• Positive Sentiment: New partnerships expand Agentforce use cases — Viz.ai announced a real?time clinical intelligence integration for Agentforce Life Sciences, which could deepen healthcare monetization paths. Viz.ai and Salesforce Collaborate to Transform Pharma Engagement
• Positive Sentiment: Product progress continues — revamped Slackbot went GA and analysts highlight Agentforce as a medium?term revenue accelerator if adoption scales. Salesforce makes revamped Slackbot generally available
• Neutral Sentiment: Long?term valuation and thesis: multiple write?ups (Seeking Alpha, Zacks, Forbes) argue CRM remains attractive on cash?flow multiples and market position, supporting longer?term buyers but not preventing near?term volatility. Seeking Alpha: Cheap 14x FCF
• Neutral Sentiment: Institutional ownership remains high and several large managers increased stakes last quarter, indicating continued long?term commitment by major investors.
• Negative Sentiment: Unusually large put buying today (~157k contracts, ~144% above normal) is a strong short?term bearish signal and likely amplified intraday selling and volatility.
• Negative Sentiment: Sector?level AI fears: coverage and commentary (MarketBeat, AOL/MSN pieces) argue agentic tools like Anthropic’s Claude Code could reduce demand for human?driven SaaS services — a thematic risk dragging CRM and peers lower. Why Salesforce stock is already down 10% this year
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: director Neelie Kroes sold ~3,893 shares (~$929k), a notable reduction in her holding; while single filings don’t prove firm outlook changes, they add to near?term negative sentiment. SEC Form 4
• Negative Sentiment: Media debate on whether the pullback is a buying opportunity or a value trap is keeping sentiment fragile and sustaining selling pressure. Is CRM a bargain or value trap?

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Northland Capmk lowered Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 28th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $326.50.

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.