Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stock: LaFleur & Godfrey LLC Raises Holdings

LaFleur & Godfrey LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 10.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 50,613 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,810 shares during the quarter. Salesforce makes up approximately 1.4% of LaFleur & Godfrey LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $11,619,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. North Dakota State Investment Board boosted its position in Salesforce by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. North Dakota State Investment Board now owns 24,346 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,589,000 after buying an additional 910 shares during the last quarter. Lynx Investment Advisory acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the third quarter valued at $240,000. BLB&B Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 2.5% in the third quarter. BLB&B Advisors LLC now owns 82,840 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $19,018,000 after acquiring an additional 2,030 shares during the last quarter. Smith Group Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 3rd quarter valued at about $43,343,000. Finally, WestEnd Advisors LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 31.4% during the 3rd quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 225,477 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $51,763,000 after purchasing an additional 53,931 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 4,176 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the purchase, the director owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,486,958.84. This represents a 28.66% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Usage-based AI billing could improve monetization. Salesforce plans to begin charging customers based on the volume of AI-agent calls in November, moving beyond a purely seat-based model. New Agent Fabric tools for testing, evaluation and cost controls may help customers adopt agents and give Salesforce a clearer path to growing AI revenue. Salesforce Brings In Usage Based AI Billing With New Agent Fabric Controls
• Positive Sentiment: Agentforce is strengthening the generative-AI investment case. Recent commentary points to improving Agentforce traction and supports the view that Salesforce can use its large customer base to commercialize AI capabilities, potentially accelerating growth beyond its core customer-management software. Agentforce Growth Strengthens Salesforce’s Generative AI Narrative
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst and valuation coverage remains generally constructive. Zacks describes CRM as a highly ranked growth stock, while other analysis argues the shares look inexpensive relative to Salesforce’s earnings power. The company’s latest reported quarter also showed strong earnings, revenue growth and profitability, supporting the bullish case. Salesforce Stock Looks Cheap Relative To Its Earnings Power
• Neutral Sentiment: Product expansion adds ecosystem value. Fastcall launched mobile calling and SMS integrations for Salesforce on iPhone and Android, broadening customer-engagement functionality, although the third-party announcement is unlikely to materially affect near-term financial results. Fastcall Launches Fastcall Mobile
• Negative Sentiment: Recent volatility reflects execution and valuation concerns. CRM fell in the previous session even as the broader market advanced, suggesting investors remain cautious about whether AI growth will offset slower underlying growth and justify the stock’s valuation. The shift to usage-based pricing also introduces uncertainty around revenue predictability and customer adoption.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on CRM. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, October 12th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 17th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, October 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.98.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $242.37 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $199.47 billion, a PE ratio of 22.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.26. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $237.98 and a 200-day moving average of $199.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $146.32 and a one year high of $269.11.

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. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.91 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.04%.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc (NYSE: CRM) is a global enterprise software company that provides cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) technology. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data, analytics and interactions with customers across digital and traditional channels.

The company’s products include Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud and Data Cloud. Salesforce also offers Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and Slack for workplace collaboration.