Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stock Sold by Pictet Asset Management Holding SA

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lowered its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,459,618 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 94,668 shares during the quarter. Salesforce accounts for 1.0% of Pictet Asset Management Holding SA’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA owned about 0.54% of Salesforce worth $1,023,647,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter valued at $11,396,844,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth about $1,914,086,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in Salesforce by 130.2% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,363,096,000 after purchasing an additional 7,160,302 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at about $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at about $844,928,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the 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 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. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 18th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 18,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,486,958.84. The trade was a 28.66% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s planned acquisition of AI voice-agent company Cresta could strengthen Agentforce and Service Cloud, adding capabilities for customer-service automation. The deal also brings acquisition costs and execution risks. Article: Salesforce Bets on AI Voice Agents With Planned Cresta Acquisition
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research upgraded Salesforce from “hold” to “strong buy,” a favorable analyst signal that may help counter near-term concerns. Article: Zacks Research rating
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce is expanding its Coworker offering and promoting a 21-times growth claim, but the report notes that no baseline is provided, making the figure difficult to assess. Article: Salesforce Expands Coworker’s Reach, but Its 21× Growth Claim Has No Baseline
• Neutral Sentiment: The company is extending Agent Fabric to help businesses manage AI agents across platforms. Its large customer base and reported 1.2 billion daily requests suggest potential, but investors still need evidence that the AI activity will translate into meaningful revenue. Article: Salesforce Stock: The 1 Number Investors Still Need to See
• Negative Sentiment: A broader software sell-off is weighing on CRM, while S&P Global Ratings cut Salesforce’s credit rating to A from A+. S&P cited acquisition spending and a $25 billion debt-financed buyback, which lifted pro forma net debt relative to EBITDA above its previous downgrade threshold. The rating action raises concerns about leverage and aggressive capital allocation. Article: S&P cuts Salesforce to A on rising acquisition debt and buybacks

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CRM. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, September 11th. CLSA initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, July 20th. They set a “hold” rating and a $165.00 target price for the company. Yorkville Ives initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, October 5th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $290.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.98.

Salesforce Stock Down 3.8%

Shares of CRM opened at $213.96 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $176.09 billion, a PE ratio of 19.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s 50 day moving average is $239.53 and its 200 day moving average is $198.64. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $146.32 and a 12-month high of $269.11. 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 (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.33 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.91 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. Research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th were given a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.04%.

Salesforce Profile

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company best known for customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Its platform helps businesses manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce and customer data, and includes products such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Data Cloud and Agentforce.

The company also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data analytics and visualization, and MuleSoft for connecting applications and data. Salesforce’s products are used by organizations across a range of industries and are available to customers around the world.

Founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff and other co-founders, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco.