Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stock: SteelPeak Wealth LLC Grows Holdings

Key Points

• SteelPeak Wealth increased its Salesforce stake by 553.9% in the third quarter, reaching 33,750 shares valued at approximately $7.8 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 80.43% of CRM.
• Salesforce’s AI strategy is attracting investor and analyst attention through its Hunter outbound sales agent, Agentforce enhancements and Loops AI acquisition. Bank of America upgraded the stock to “buy” and raised its price target to $285, while the average analyst target is $278.12.
• 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. However, concerns remain about AI-related spending, pricing increases and whether the company can achieve meaningful revenue acceleration.

SteelPeak Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 553.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 33,750 shares of the CRM provider's stock after buying an additional 28,589 shares during the period. SteelPeak Wealth LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $7,763,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter worth approximately $11,396,844,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,914,086,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% during 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 during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at approximately $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at approximately $844,928,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 4,176 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $239.33 per share, for a total transaction of $999,442.08. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 18,748 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,486,958.84. This trade represents a 28.66% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible 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 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 ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce launched Hunter, an AI-powered outbound sales agent built on Agentforce. Integrations with ZoomInfo, Demandbase and DocuSign could increase adoption of Salesforce’s higher-value AI workflows and make the platform more embedded in customers’ sales and contracting processes. Salesforce unveils Hunter for AI-powered outbound sales
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America reportedly upgraded Salesforce in a rare double upgrade, citing improving confidence in the company’s AI strategy, including a small AI acquisition and changes to AI-product pricing. The upgrade supports the view that monetization could improve as customers move to premium offerings. Salesforce received a rare double upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: The Loops AI acquisition and new Agentforce capabilities reinforce Salesforce’s effort to turn AI into a growth driver, although investors will need evidence of meaningful revenue acceleration. Salesforce buys the Loops AI platform
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor interest in CRM has risen sharply, with Salesforce appearing among heavily searched stocks. This may increase visibility but is not, by itself, a fundamental catalyst. Investors heavily search Salesforce
• Negative Sentiment: Enterprise-software shares are falling as worries spread that aggressive AI infrastructure and financing commitments may not generate sufficient returns. Salesforce is being pulled lower alongside other AI-linked software leaders. Enterprise software stocks fall as AI financing worries spread
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are comparing Salesforce’s premium-edition price increases with Adobe’s more user-friendly pricing approach, raising concerns that Salesforce’s AI monetization strategy could pressure customer upgrades or retention. Adobe versus Salesforce for AI software growth

Salesforce Price Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $241.00 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $146.32 and a 52 week high of $269.11. The company's 50 day moving average price is $231.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $194.82. The stock has a market cap of $198.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%. Salesforce's quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $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. On average, equities analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on CRM shares. Evercore assumed coverage on Salesforce in a report on Monday, October 12th. They set an "outperform" rating for the company. Bank of America upgraded Salesforce from an "underperform" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $160.00 to $285.00 in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Stephens restated an "equal weight" rating and set a $289.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, September 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, September 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $278.12.

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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