Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Sold by Conning Inc.

Conning Inc. cut its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 18.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 21,111 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 4,883 shares during the period. Conning Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $4,846,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Latitude Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Costello Asset Management INC boosted its stake in Salesforce by 410.3% during 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 last quarter. ABS Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth $610,974,000. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth $25,000. Finally, Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth $26,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 4,176 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the director directly owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 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: Usage-based AI billing could improve monetization. Salesforce plans to begin charging customers based on the volume of AI-agent calls in November, moving beyond a purely seat-based model. New Agent Fabric tools for testing, evaluation and cost controls may help customers adopt agents and give Salesforce a clearer path to growing AI revenue. Salesforce Brings In Usage Based AI Billing With New Agent Fabric Controls
• Positive Sentiment: Agentforce is strengthening the generative-AI investment case. Recent commentary points to improving Agentforce traction and supports the view that Salesforce can use its large customer base to commercialize AI capabilities, potentially accelerating growth beyond its core customer-management software. Agentforce Growth Strengthens Salesforce’s Generative AI Narrative
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and valuation coverage remains generally constructive. Zacks describes CRM as a highly ranked growth stock, while other analysis argues the shares look inexpensive relative to Salesforce’s earnings power. The company’s latest reported quarter also showed strong earnings, revenue growth and profitability, supporting the bullish case. Salesforce Stock Looks Cheap Relative To Its Earnings Power
• Neutral Sentiment: Product expansion adds ecosystem value. Fastcall launched mobile calling and SMS integrations for Salesforce on iPhone and Android, broadening customer-engagement functionality, although the third-party announcement is unlikely to materially affect near-term financial results. Fastcall Launches Fastcall Mobile
• Negative Sentiment: Recent volatility reflects execution and valuation concerns. CRM fell in the previous session even as the broader market advanced, suggesting investors remain cautious about whether AI growth will offset slower underlying growth and justify the stock’s valuation. The shift to usage-based pricing also introduces uncertainty around revenue predictability and customer adoption.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Freedom Broker increased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $230.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Bank of America raised shares of Salesforce from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $160.00 to $285.00 in a research note on Monday, October 12th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.98.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.6%

NYSE CRM opened at $242.37 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $237.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $199.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market cap of $199.47 billion, a PE ratio of 22.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.26. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $146.32 and a 52 week high of $269.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. 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, equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 16.04%.

About Salesforce

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.