Insider Buying: Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Director Acquires $999,442.08 in Stock

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) Director David Blair Kirk bought 4,176 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, 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 acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Salesforce Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $237.57 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $195.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.66, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.20. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $146.32 and a 1-year high of $269.11. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $212.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $190.04.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%.The business had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.91 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 16.04%.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Wells Fargo raised its price target on Salesforce, citing the company’s strong customer relationships and growing interest in Agentforce. Investor focus is on whether Agentforce can reach approximately $1.5 billion in annual recurring revenue and reaccelerate Salesforce’s growth. Wells Fargo Raises Salesforce’s Price Target
• Positive Sentiment: Enterprise software stocks rallied even as broader large-cap technology shares weakened, with Salesforce among the stronger performers. The move suggests investors are rotating toward established software companies and viewing the sector as a potential beneficiary if spending shifts away from capital-intensive AI infrastructure. Enterprise Software Stocks Rally
• Positive Sentiment: Several commentaries argued that Wall Street may be undervaluing Salesforce’s agentic-AI opportunity. Analysts and bullish investors see substantial upside if Agentforce becomes a meaningful growth engine, while Salesforce’s valuation remains below prior-year highs. The AI Software Story Wall Street Is Underrating
• Positive Sentiment: CEO Marc Benioff said Salesforce’s investment in Anthropic and other AI startups could ultimately be worth “tens of billions,” adding strategic upside beyond Salesforce’s internal AI products. Salesforce’s Investment in Anthropic
• Neutral Sentiment: A Salesforce director purchased roughly $1 million of CRM shares, a signal of insider confidence. The company also continues to offer a quarterly dividend and maintains broad institutional ownership.
• Negative Sentiment: Bearish analysis warns that AI could pressure Salesforce’s traditional software economics, including the profitability of its Agentforce usage-based model. Investors remain concerned that large customers may reduce software spending or build more AI capabilities internally. Salesforce AWU Economics Are Worsening

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CRM. Scotiabank downgraded Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. HSBC boosted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Wedbush assumed coverage on Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, September 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $275.14.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CRM. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 35.4% in the fourth quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 199 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the period. Krane Funds Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC now owns 8,254 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,187,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. HBW Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in Salesforce by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. HBW Advisory Services LLC now owns 13,098 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,445,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Salesforce by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,274 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $611,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Focused Wealth Management Inc raised its position in Salesforce by 5.5% in the 1st quarter. Focused Wealth Management Inc now owns 1,126 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $210,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) technology and related enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data analytics and business operations through subscription-based software and cloud services.

The company’s product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud and the Salesforce Platform. Salesforce also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and artificial intelligence capabilities, including its Agentforce platform for building and deploying AI agents.

Founded in 1999, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and serves businesses and organizations across a broad range of industries and geographic markets worldwide.