New York State Common Retirement Fund Reduces Stock Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

New York State Common Retirement Fund decreased its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 5.6% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,135,862 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 66,785 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $269,199,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 88,823,481 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $24,221,275,000 after buying an additional 909,853 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 1.6% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,260,918 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $13,452,998,000 after acquiring an additional 776,300 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Salesforce by 0.6% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,873,900 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,669,224,000 after acquiring an additional 114,504 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,826,049,000. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 26.2% during 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 period. Hedge funds and other 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 secured a $5.6 billion, 10‑year IDIQ contract from the U.S. Army through its national security unit — a large, multi-year revenue opportunity that strengthens recurring backlog and expands government/defense TAM. Salesforce (CRM) wins $5.6 billion US Army technology contract
• Positive Sentiment: Reports highlight additional long‑horizon AI deals (defense and wildfire applications), signaling a strategic pivot beyond core CRM into mission‑critical AI services that could lift margins and cross‑sell opportunities over time. Salesforce Deepens Defense and Wildfire AI Roles With Long-Horizon Deals
• Positive Sentiment: Some analysts remain constructive on CRM, citing AI momentum, Agentforce adoption and margin improvement as reasons to prefer Salesforce in the enterprise‑software space versus peers. Is Salesforce.com (CRM) a Buy as Wall Street Analysts Look Optimistic?
• Neutral Sentiment: High‑profile media mentions (Jim Cramer) keep the stock in focus; these can drive short‑term flows but don’t change fundamentals immediately. Jim Cramer Discusses Salesforce (CRM)
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce granted ~139,574 RSUs to employees acquired via Apromore, Spindle AI and Informatica hires — routine inducement grants that slightly increase share‑based compensation but are not unusually large. Salesforce Grants Equity Awards to Apromore, Spindle AI, and Informatica Employees Under Its Inducement Equity Incentive Plan
• Negative Sentiment: Technical and sentiment signals are bearish: recent coverage notes the chart points to downside and the stock has shown sharp drawdowns over the past year, which can pressure short‑term performance despite positive news. Salesforce stock chart points to a dive despite the $5.6 billion Army deal
• Negative Sentiment: Price‑forecast pieces and monthly performance rundowns highlight recent volatility (noting double‑digit monthly swings and year‑over‑year declines), which keeps upside capped until clearer revenue/margin beats or multiple expansion occurs. Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM) Price Prediction and Forecast 2026–2030 (February 2026)

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 1,936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,761,499.28. The trade was a 22.15% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the sale, the director owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. This represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 140,927 shares of company stock worth $33,146,979. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on CRM. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Mizuho set a $340.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. Wall Street Zen raised Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 28th. Finally, Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.51.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $228.03 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $247.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $248.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a market cap of $213.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.44, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.26. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $218.96 and a fifty-two week high of $360.18.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were given a dividend of $0.416 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 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.