Houlihan Financial Resource Group Ltd. Sells 6,355 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Houlihan Financial Resource Group Ltd. lessened its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 54.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,227 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 6,355 shares during the quarter. Houlihan Financial Resource Group Ltd.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,239,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after purchasing an additional 3,102 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $611,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $747,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the period. Fiduciary Alliance LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter worth approximately $684,000. Finally, Balefire LLC bought a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $359,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Goldman Sachs initiated coverage with a Buy and $330 price target, giving institutional validation to a recovery narrative and signaling upside vs. current levels. Goldman Sachs Assumes Coverage of Salesforce (CRM) Stock
• Positive Sentiment: Agentforce is getting marquee validation — the World Economic Forum will use an Agentforce‑powered assistant at Davos, raising visibility for enterprise adoption and monetization potential. World Economic Forum and Salesforce Empower Global Leaders
• Positive Sentiment: New partnerships expand Agentforce use cases — Viz.ai announced a real‑time clinical intelligence integration for Agentforce Life Sciences, which could deepen healthcare monetization paths. Viz.ai and Salesforce Collaborate to Transform Pharma Engagement
• Positive Sentiment: Product progress continues — revamped Slackbot went GA and analysts highlight Agentforce as a medium‑term revenue accelerator if adoption scales. Salesforce makes revamped Slackbot generally available
• Neutral Sentiment: Long‑term valuation and thesis: multiple write‑ups (Seeking Alpha, Zacks, Forbes) argue CRM remains attractive on cash‑flow multiples and market position, supporting longer‑term buyers but not preventing near‑term volatility. Seeking Alpha: Cheap 14x FCF
• Neutral Sentiment: Institutional ownership remains high and several large managers increased stakes last quarter, indicating continued long‑term commitment by major investors.
• Negative Sentiment: Unusually large put buying today (~157k contracts, ~144% above normal) is a strong short‑term bearish signal and likely amplified intraday selling and volatility.
• Negative Sentiment: Sector‑level AI fears: coverage and commentary (MarketBeat, AOL/MSN pieces) argue agentic tools like Anthropic’s Claude Code could reduce demand for human‑driven SaaS services — a thematic risk dragging CRM and peers lower. Why Salesforce stock is already down 10% this year
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling: director Neelie Kroes sold ~3,893 shares (~$929k), a notable reduction in her holding; while single filings don’t prove firm outlook changes, they add to near‑term negative sentiment. SEC Form 4
• Negative Sentiment: Media debate on whether the pullback is a buying opportunity or a value trap is keeping sentiment fragile and sustaining selling pressure. Is CRM a bargain or value trap?

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on CRM shares. Arete Research upgraded Salesforce to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Mizuho set a $340.00 price target on Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, December 29th. DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $326.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total value of $31,598.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,085,096,889. This represents a 0.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total value of $31,605,171.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 139,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,803,314.90. This represents a 49.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 152,177 shares of company stock worth $36,015,774 over the last three months. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Salesforce Stock Down 2.6%

CRM stock opened at $233.30 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $249.62 and a 200-day moving average price of $250.92. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $221.96 and a 12 month high of $367.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $218.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.26.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.86 by $0.39. The company had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.27 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.41 EPS. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 18th were issued a dividend of $0.416 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.16%.

Salesforce Profile

Salesforce, founded in 1999 and headquartered in San Francisco, is a global provider of cloud-based software focused on customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise applications. The company popularized the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model for CRM and has built a broad portfolio of products designed to help organizations manage sales, service, marketing, commerce and analytics through a unified, cloud-first platform.

Core offerings include Sales Cloud for sales automation, Service Cloud for customer support, Marketing Cloud for digital marketing and engagement, and Commerce Cloud for e-commerce.