Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Acquired by Kestra Advisory Services LLC

Key Points

• Kestra Advisory Services increased its Salesforce stake by 4.2% in the third quarter, buying 4,811 shares to hold 118,281 shares valued at about $27.2 million.
• Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of Salesforce shares; several major investors also added or established positions.
• Analysts give Salesforce a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating with a $278.98 target price, while concerns include acquisition spending and debt that contributed to an S&P credit-rating downgrade.

Kestra Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 118,281 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 4,811 shares during the quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $27,154,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Salesforce from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Monday, October 12th. They set a "buy" rating on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. Raymond James Financial reiterated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, Stephens reissued an "equal weight" rating and set a $289.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, September 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $278.98.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The shares were purchased 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. The trade was a 28.66% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director directly owned 5,437 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. The trade was a 45.29% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 3.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $213.96 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.32 and a 1 year high of $269.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $176.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $239.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $198.64.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released 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 firm had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $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. As a group, research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th were given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is currently 16.04%.

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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