Generate Investment Management Ltd Makes New $5.98 Million Investment in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Generate Investment Management Ltd. established a new Salesforce position worth approximately $5.98 million by purchasing 26,032 shares in the third quarter. Institutional investors collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Salesforce received broadly positive analyst coverage, including a Bank of America double upgrade to Buy with a $285 price target; the consensus rating is “Moderate Buy” with an average target of $278.12.
• The company’s AI strategy remains a key catalyst and risk: the planned Loops acquisition and Agentforce initiatives support growth prospects, but investors remain concerned about the pace of AI adoption and monetization. Salesforce recently reported earnings well above estimates, with quarterly revenue rising 10.8% year over year.

Generate Investment Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 26,032 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $5,976,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter worth about $25,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Costello Asset Management INC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 410.3% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Gables Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter valued at about $28,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America upgraded Salesforce to Buy in a rare double upgrade and set a $285 price target. The firm cited improving confidence in Agentforce growth, the planned Loops acquisition and Salesforce’s $25 billion accelerated share-repurchase program. Salesforce Stock Price Up 2% Following Analyst Upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce agreed to acquire Loops, an AI-powered analytics platform. The deal is intended to strengthen Salesforce’s data and AI capabilities and support the company’s broader Agentforce strategy. Salesforce to Buy AI-Powered Analytics Platform Loops
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce and DocuSign expanded their partnership by integrating DocuSign’s Intelligent Agreement Management platform into Salesforce, Agentforce and Slack. The integration could increase platform usage and provide practical AI-powered workflow applications for enterprise customers. DocuSign and Salesforce Launch Intelligent Agreement Management
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst and peer comparisons portray Salesforce as a relatively strong performer in the sales-software group, but investors are still waiting for clearer evidence that AI products will translate into faster revenue growth, higher margins or stronger customer retention.
• Negative Sentiment: The main overhang is skepticism about agentic AI monetization. Although Salesforce has exceeded earnings expectations, many customers have not yet upgraded to the newer offerings, raising concerns that adoption may be slower than management’s long-term opportunity suggests. Agentic AI Skepticism: Apple and Salesforce Face a Common Issue
• Negative Sentiment: Additional commentary warns that AI could cannibalize portions of traditional software demand rather than immediately create incremental growth. That uncertainty is offsetting the positive impact of the upgrade, acquisition and buyback news.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the sale, the director owned 5,437 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on CRM. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Salesforce from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $300.00 target price (up from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Raymond James Financial reissued a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Salesforce from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $278.12.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM traded down $2.49 on Wednesday, hitting $235.52. 2,440,393 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,581,251. The business's 50 day moving average price is $228.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $193.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02. The company has a market capitalization of $193.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 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 - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. Salesforce's quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.91 EPS. 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 analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Salesforce Profile

Salesforce, Inc NYSE: CRM develops cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software and enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, analytics, data integration and collaboration through subscription-based services.

The company's product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Platform, Data Cloud and Tableau. Salesforce also offers MuleSoft integration technology, Slack collaboration software and artificial intelligence capabilities through its Einstein platform.

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