Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Sold by North Star Investment Management Corp.

Key Points

• North Star Investment Management cut its Salesforce stake by 55.9% in the third quarter, selling 7,630 shares and retaining 6,021 shares valued at approximately $1.38 million. Institutional investors collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Salesforce reported quarterly earnings of $5.90 per share, well above the $3.27 consensus estimate, while revenue rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion. The company also pays a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, yielding 0.8% annually.
• Analysts maintain a generally favorable outlook, with Salesforce receiving a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $278.98, compared with a recent share price of $231.06.

North Star Investment Management Corp. cut its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 55.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,021 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 7,630 shares during the quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,382,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Latitude Advisors LLC bought a new position in Salesforce during the third quarter worth $25,000. Costello Asset Management INC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 410.3% in the first 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 last quarter. ABS Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter valued at $610,974,000. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter valued at $25,000. Finally, Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter valued at $26,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $231.06 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $146.32 and a 52 week high of $269.11. The firm has a market cap of $190.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.10 and a beta of 1.26. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $238.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $199.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $11.35 billion during 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 was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $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. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 5,437 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CRM. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Salesforce from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a report on Thursday, September 24th. KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, October 12th. They issued a "sector weight" rating on the stock. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 21st. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $278.98.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: AI monetization could improve. Salesforce plans to introduce usage-based pricing for AI-agent calls in November, potentially creating a new revenue stream beyond seat-based subscriptions. Its Agent Fabric upgrades are also designed to improve testing, evaluation and cost controls for customers. Salesforce Brings In Usage Based AI Billing With New Agent Fabric Controls
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s growth and cash generation remain investor positives. The company generated $14.4 billion in free cash flow during fiscal 2026, grew revenue about 11% in its latest quarter, and continues to integrate autonomous AI agents into its CRM platform. Salesforce vs. Datadog
• Positive Sentiment: Third-party adoption supports the AI ecosystem. Navatar is adding Claude-powered recommendations and workflow actions to its private-equity and M&A software built on Salesforce, highlighting expanding use cases for AI on the platform. Navatar Brings Claude-Powered Recommendations and Actions to CRM
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation estimates received a modest lift. Updated views on Salesforce’s AI opportunity and its Braze relationship raised fair-value estimates, but the limited increase was not enough to overcome broader sector concerns. Salesforce Stock Sees Modest Fair Value Lift
• Negative Sentiment: Enterprise-software sentiment deteriorated. ServiceNow’s sharp decline after providing a slower contracted-revenue outlook, along with weakness in Fortinet and other software stocks, triggered sympathy selling in Salesforce and raised concerns about sector-wide growth durability. ServiceNow Tumbles as Slower Contract Growth Pressures Software Stocks

About Salesforce

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.

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