Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc Sells 38,480 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc lessened its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 29.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 94,284 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 38,480 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $22,345,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 88,823,481 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $24,221,275,000 after purchasing an additional 909,853 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Salesforce by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,260,918 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,452,998,000 after purchasing an additional 776,300 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,873,900 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,669,224,000 after buying an additional 114,504 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth about $2,826,049,000. Finally, Amundi grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 26.2% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,087,545,000 after buying an additional 1,612,413 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Trading Down 2.8%

NYSE:CRM opened at $227.10 on Friday. 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 $212.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.32, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.26. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $249.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $250.60.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.91% and a return on equity of 14.41%. The company had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.41 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. Analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were given a dividend of $0.416 per share. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.16%.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Enterprise validation for Agentforce — World Economic Forum will use an Agentforce‑powered assistant at Davos, boosting visibility for Salesforce’s agentic platform and enterprise adoption case. World Economic Forum and Salesforce Empower Global Leaders
• Positive Sentiment: Commercial expansion in healthcare — Viz.ai announced a real‑time clinical intelligence integration for Agentforce Life Sciences, which can increase addressable market and use‑case monetization if adoption scales. Viz.ai and Salesforce Collaborate
• Positive Sentiment: Product traction and bullish commentary — Slackbot revamp is generally available and on‑air analysts/guests (Phil Palumbo) call Salesforce “nothing broken” about its business at a discounted price, supporting a recovery narrative. Salesforce makes revamped Slackbot generally available Palumbo video
• Neutral Sentiment: Large institutional holders remain heavily invested (Vanguard, State Street, etc.), which provides ownership stability but is not an immediate catalyst.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst and valuation write‑ups note attractive long‑term cash‑flow multiples and Agentforce upside; useful for longer‑term investors but not a short‑term trigger. Seeking Alpha piece
• Negative Sentiment: Unusually heavy put buying — roughly 157k put contracts traded (about +144% vs. normal), a direct bearish signal that likely amplified selling and hedging flows intraday.
• Negative Sentiment: Insider selling — Director Neelie Kroes sold ~3,893 shares (~$929k) on Jan. 14; insider sales often add short‑term pressure even when not indicative of company fundamentals. SEC Form 4
• Negative Sentiment: Sector/AI fears — coverage and headlines (e.g., “Claude Code” and MarketBeat pieces) argue agentic AI could cannibalize high‑margin human‑driven SaaS revenue, fueling sentiment that CRM names may lose licensing growth. AOL: Why Salesforce stock is already down MarketBeat: 3 Stocks to Avoid

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the transaction, the director owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 96,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $260.58 per share, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 152,177 shares of company stock valued at $36,015,774 over the last three months. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Northland Capmk downgraded Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Arete Research raised shares of Salesforce to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.51.

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.