8,395 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM Bought by StoneRidge PMG Advisors LLC

Key Points

• StoneRidge PMG Advisors initiated a Salesforce position of 8,395 shares, valued at about $1.93 million, representing 1.3% of its portfolio.
• Institutional ownership stands at 80.43%, with several major investors recently adding or initiating positions. Analysts’ consensus rating is “Moderate Buy,” with an average price target of $278.98.
• Salesforce’s latest reported quarter beat EPS expectations and revenue grew 10.8% year over year, but investors face concerns over acquisition spending, debt-funded buybacks and a recent credit-rating downgrade.

StoneRidge PMG Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 8,395 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,927,000. Salesforce accounts for approximately 1.3% of StoneRidge PMG Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $11,396,844,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in Salesforce by 130.2% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,363,096,000 after buying an additional 7,160,302 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Salesforce by 28.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 11,724,790 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,188,666,000 after buying an additional 2,561,923 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $844,928,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s planned acquisition of AI voice-agent company Cresta could strengthen Agentforce and Service Cloud, adding capabilities for customer-service automation. The deal also brings acquisition costs and execution risks. Article: Salesforce Bets on AI Voice Agents With Planned Cresta Acquisition
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research upgraded Salesforce from “hold” to “strong buy,” a favorable analyst signal that may help counter near-term concerns. Article: Zacks Research rating
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce is expanding its Coworker offering and promoting a 21-times growth claim, but the report notes that no baseline is provided, making the figure difficult to assess. Article: Salesforce Expands Coworker’s Reach, but Its 21× Growth Claim Has No Baseline
• Neutral Sentiment: The company is extending Agent Fabric to help businesses manage AI agents across platforms. Its large customer base and reported 1.2 billion daily requests suggest potential, but investors still need evidence that the AI activity will translate into meaningful revenue. Article: Salesforce Stock: The 1 Number Investors Still Need to See
• Negative Sentiment: A broader software sell-off is weighing on CRM, while S&P Global Ratings cut Salesforce’s credit rating to A from A+. S&P cited acquisition spending and a $25 billion debt-financed buyback, which lifted pro forma net debt relative to EBITDA above its previous downgrade threshold. The rating action raises concerns about leverage and aggressive capital allocation. Article: S&P cuts Salesforce to A on rising acquisition debt and buybacks

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on CRM shares. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, October 12th. They issued a "buy" rating on the stock. Evercore reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, October 20th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Citizens Jmp reiterated a "market outperform" rating and set a $315.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, September 18th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have given a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $278.98.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $213.96 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $176.09 billion, a PE ratio of 19.50, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.24. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $146.32 and a twelve month high of $269.11. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $239.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $198.64. 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 (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.91 EPS. Salesforce's revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current fiscal 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Salesforce's payout ratio is currently 16.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 4,176 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the purchase, the director owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at $4,486,958.84. This trade represents a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on 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 owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 3.50% of the company's stock.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company best known for customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Its platform helps businesses manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce and customer data, and includes products such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Data Cloud and Agentforce.

The company also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data analytics and visualization, and MuleSoft for connecting applications and data. Salesforce's products are used by organizations across a range of industries and are available to customers around the world.

Founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff and other co-founders, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco.

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