North Star Asset Management Inc. Acquires 5,106 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

North Star Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 53,489 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,106 shares during the quarter. North Star Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $12,677,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Salesforce in the second quarter worth $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter worth about $26,000. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth about $34,000. Quaker Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 208.6% during the 2nd quarter. Quaker Wealth Management LLC now owns 126 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Country Trust Bank raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 658.8% in the 2nd quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wedbush reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $235.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Truist Financial lowered their price target on Salesforce from $400.00 to $380.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Macquarie Infrastructure raised their target price on Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $301.56.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is expanding AI capabilities (Momentum acquisition, partnerships for identity and governance) that support its Agentforce/Slackbot roadmap — a tangible product push investors see as earnings- and growth-accretive. Salesforce AI Deals Test Investor Patience As Valuation Screens Attractive
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and previews expect a strong Q4 with margin tailwinds from cost cuts and AI-driven product leverage — upbeat previews are supporting bullish positioning into the print. Salesforce Q4 earnings on deck: What to expect
• Positive Sentiment: A broader software rally tied to an Anthropic-related announcement lifted AI-linked names, giving Salesforce sector-driven relief that helped push the stock up. US software stocks climb as Anthropic announcement sparks relief rally
• Neutral Sentiment: Options market pricing signals a sizable move is expected around Wednesday’s after?hours Q4 report — raises short-term volatility risk but not a directional read. Here’s How Much Salesforce Stock Is Expected to Move After Earnings
• Neutral Sentiment: KeyCorp trimmed its price target substantially (from $400 to $300) but left an overweight stance — a mixed signal that reduces upside expectations while still reflecting conviction in the business. Benzinga
• Negative Sentiment: Several firms have cut price targets and flagged earnings/valuation risk ahead of Q4, underscoring downside sensitivity if revenue growth disappoints or AI investments don’t convert quickly. Big Salesforce Price Target Cuts Ahead of Q4 Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Persistent critique around SaaS vulnerability to “agentic AI” and reminders of prior sharp corrections keep longer-term sentiment fragile — bulls point to AI integration, bears point to execution and valuation risks. What The Bulls Are Missing About Salesforce Stock

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the sale, the director directly owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Trading Up 4.2%

Shares of CRM opened at $185.64 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $227.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $239.19. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $173.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.27. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $174.57 and a 12-month high of $313.70.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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