Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Sold by Perpetual Ltd

Perpetual Ltd lowered its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 26.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 160,009 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 56,208 shares during the period. Perpetual Ltd’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $37,922,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,826,049,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 27,361.5% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,424,169 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $933,737,000 after acquiring an additional 3,411,700 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Salesforce by 1,729.6% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,973,141 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $538,020,000 after acquiring an additional 1,865,297 shares during the last quarter. Longview Partners Guernsey LTD acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 1st quarter worth $467,944,000. Finally, Amundi increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 26.2% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,087,545,000 after purchasing an additional 1,612,413 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Director David Blair Kirk bought 1,936 shares (22% increase to his stake), signaling insider confidence in the company’s outlook; insider purchases often reassure investors about management’s view of valuation and prospects. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan argues the market is underestimating Salesforce’s AI opportunity — calling CRM “priced like a value stock” while AI-driven monetization ramps, which supports the thesis for re-rating if AI revenue acceleration materializes. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce agreed to acquire AI marketing firm Qualified, expanding its agentic/AI marketing stack and potentially creating cross-sell and product monetization opportunities within Marketing Cloud and Agentforce. Strategic tuck-ins can accelerate ARR and AI feature adoption. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: BTIG initiated coverage with a Buy and $335 target (roughly ~29% upside from current levels), adding upward analyst momentum and providing buy-side validation for CRM’s AI-led rebound thesis. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce remains a focus on market watchlists (Zacks note) and broader software sector recaps benchmark CRM performance; attention can boost liquidity but doesn’t change fundamentals immediately. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: MarketBeat/others note Salesforce’s recent EPS beat and guidance pointing to 2026 acceleration; that underpins the bullish narrative but is already partly reflected in sentiment and analyst revisions. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Morgan Stanley reduced its price target on CRM, a reminder that some sell-side desks remain cautious on near-term multiples and execution risk — this can temper rallies and add upside resistance until proofs of AI monetization appear. Read More.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Salesforce from $275.00 to $265.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Northland Securities lifted their target price on Salesforce from $264.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Roth Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $395.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $326.68.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $259.64 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $243.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.25. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $246.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $251.84. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $221.96 and a fifty-two week high of $367.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 18th will be given a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 22.16%.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 96,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $260.58 per share, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at $780,309,155.22. This represents a 3.31% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total value of $31,598.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,085,096,889. This represents a 0.00% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 173,034 shares of company stock valued at $41,097,367. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.