NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC Has $22.37 Million Stock Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC cut its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 93,288 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 9,037 shares during the quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $22,365,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CRM. Painted Porch Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 260.0% in the second quarter. Painted Porch Advisors LLC now owns 90 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Maseco LLP bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Spurstone Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $34,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on CRM shares. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $260.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Oppenheimer cut their target price on Salesforce from $315.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Finally, Mizuho set a $340.00 price target on Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. One equities 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 issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.51.

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

Salesforce Stock Down 2.8%

Shares of CRM opened at $227.10 on Monday. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $221.96 and a 52 week high of $367.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $212.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.32, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $249.36 and a 200-day moving average of $250.32.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results 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 return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The business had revenue of $10.26 billion during 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 for the quarter was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 96,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the purchase, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total transaction of $31,605,171.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,803,314.90. This represents a 49.07% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 149,927 shares of company stock worth $35,448,144. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Salesforce

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.