Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stake Trimmed by Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc

Key Points

• Fragasso Financial Advisors reduced its Salesforce stake by 27.1% in the third quarter, selling 3,120 shares and retaining 8,381 shares valued at approximately $1.92 million. Institutional investors collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Analyst sentiment remains favorable, with Salesforce receiving a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating and an average price target of $278.12; ratings include 31 Buys, three Strong Buys, 13 Holds and three Sells.
• Salesforce reported quarterly EPS of $5.90, well above the $3.27 consensus estimate, while revenue rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion. The stock recently traded at $238.64 and pays a quarterly dividend of $0.44, yielding about 0.7% annually.

Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc cut its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 27.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,381 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 3,120 shares during the period. Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc's holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,920,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $181,143,000 after acquiring an additional 24,332 shares during the period. Fluent Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth about $2,265,000. TAM Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Salesforce during the first quarter valued at approximately $40,945,000. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,004,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 2.5% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 127,739 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $23,846,000 after buying an additional 3,125 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Raymond James Financial reiterated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. HC Wainwright cut shares of Salesforce to a "negative" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Salesforce from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $278.12.

Salesforce Trading Up 2.0%

NYSE:CRM traded up $4.72 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $238.64. 4,431,489 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,614,722. The firm has a market capitalization of $196.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.75, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $227.50 and a 200-day simple moving average of $193.27. 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 fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.91 EPS. Salesforce's revenue for the quarter 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. As a group, research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, 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, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the purchase, the director owned 18,748 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,486,958.84. This trade represents a 28.66% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America upgraded Salesforce from Underperform to Buy and raised its price target to $285 from $160. The firm believes AI could deepen customer dependence on Salesforce rather than undermine traditional software demand. Salesforce Gets a Rare BofA Double Upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s planned acquisition of AI analytics company Loops, reportedly for about $30 million, is expected to enhance Tableau and Slack by proactively identifying business anomalies and recommending actions. The deal supports Salesforce’s strategy of embedding agentic AI into customers’ workflows. Salesforce to Buy AI Analytics Platform Loops
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce and DocuSign announced that DocuSign’s Intelligent Agreement Management platform will be natively available across Salesforce, Agentforce, and Slack. The integration could make agreement workflows more efficient and increase the value and stickiness of Salesforce’s ecosystem. DocuSign and Salesforce Launch Intelligent Agreement Management
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage highlights Agentforce annual recurring revenue above $1.5 billion, strong growth in remaining performance obligations, and Salesforce’s planned $25 billion share repurchase. These factors support revenue visibility, earnings per share, and the stock’s valuation case.
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce’s latest reported quarter showed a substantial earnings beat and double-digit revenue growth, but investors remain focused on whether AI trials convert into durable paid subscriptions and whether usage-based pricing can offset possible declines in per-seat software demand.
• Negative Sentiment: Risks include rising short interest, integration uncertainty surrounding Loops, elevated leverage for a software company, and concerns that AI could cannibalize traditional SaaS seats. Salesforce must demonstrate sustained organic growth as the acquisition and Agentforce expansion progress.

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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