Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stock Purchased by Capital Investment Advisors LLC

Capital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 631.4% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 90,622 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 78,231 shares during the period. Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $20,804,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth about $26,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth about $27,000. Costello Asset Management INC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 410.3% during the 1st quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. Finally, Gables Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s AI products are reportedly growing at triple-digit rates, while its Agentforce platform and more than $14 billion in annual free cash flow could support profitable expansion. The company’s valuation may look attractive if AI adoption accelerates. Salesforce Is Betting Big on AI. The Payoff Could Be Bigger Than Investors Expect
• Positive Sentiment: Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “Overweight” rating, indicating continued confidence in Salesforce’s growth outlook and AI transition. Salesforce Stock Rating Reaffirmed as Overweight
• Positive Sentiment: The $5.66 billion Braze purchase could expand Salesforce’s customer-engagement capabilities and strengthen its push from AI defense toward a broader autonomous-agent strategy. Salesforce’s $5.6B Braze Buyout
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor comparisons with Adobe, Arista Networks and Snowflake highlight Salesforce’s CRM leadership, focus on profitable growth and AI-agent pivot, but do not represent new company-specific developments. Salesforce vs. Snowflake
• Negative Sentiment: Investors may be concerned that the Braze acquisition’s $5.66 billion price will increase integration risk and pressure near-term returns. Questions about contracts, pricing and customer impact could temper enthusiasm for the deal. Salesforce to Buy Braze for $5.66B

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the subject of several research reports. Bank of America raised shares of Salesforce from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $160.00 to $285.00 in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, September 18th. Yorkville Ives started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, October 5th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $290.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 12th. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.98.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $248.79 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $146.32 and a 12 month high of $269.11. The stock has a market cap of $204.76 billion, a PE ratio of 22.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $236.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $196.88.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.91 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other Salesforce news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 4,176 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,486,958.84. The trade was a 28.66% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Salesforce Company Profile

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.