Douglas Lane & Associates LLC Has $59.90 Million Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Douglas Lane & Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 252,728 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 51,139 shares during the quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $59,897,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Painted Porch Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 260.0% in the 2nd quarter. Painted Porch Advisors LLC now owns 90 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth $27,000. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 314.8% in the 1st quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 112 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 383.3% during the 2nd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 116 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Maseco LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $34,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Director David Blair Kirk bought 1,936 shares (22% increase to his stake), signaling insider confidence in the company’s outlook; insider purchases often reassure investors about management’s view of valuation and prospects. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan argues the market is underestimating Salesforce’s AI opportunity — calling CRM “priced like a value stock” while AI-driven monetization ramps, which supports the thesis for re-rating if AI revenue acceleration materializes. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce agreed to acquire AI marketing firm Qualified, expanding its agentic/AI marketing stack and potentially creating cross-sell and product monetization opportunities within Marketing Cloud and Agentforce. Strategic tuck-ins can accelerate ARR and AI feature adoption. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: BTIG initiated coverage with a Buy and $335 target (roughly ~29% upside from current levels), adding upward analyst momentum and providing buy-side validation for CRM’s AI-led rebound thesis. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce remains a focus on market watchlists (Zacks note) and broader software sector recaps benchmark CRM performance; attention can boost liquidity but doesn’t change fundamentals immediately. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: MarketBeat/others note Salesforce’s recent EPS beat and guidance pointing to 2026 acceleration; that underpins the bullish narrative but is already partly reflected in sentiment and analyst revisions. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Morgan Stanley reduced its price target on CRM, a reminder that some sell-side desks remain cautious on near-term multiples and execution risk — this can temper rallies and add upside resistance until proofs of AI monetization appear. Read More.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the acquisition, the director owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total transaction of $31,598.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,085,096,889. This represents a 0.00% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 173,034 shares of company stock worth $41,097,367 in the last quarter. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on CRM. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, December 15th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $440.00 to $400.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 4th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $316.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $326.68.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.7%

NYSE:CRM opened at $259.64 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $246.94 and its 200-day moving average is $251.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $221.96 and a 52 week high of $367.09. The firm has a market cap of $243.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.25.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th will be paid a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 22.16%.

Salesforce Company 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.