Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC Boosts Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 130.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,804 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,286 shares during the quarter. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,376,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Quaker Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 208.6% during the 2nd quarter. Quaker Wealth Management LLC now owns 126 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Country Trust Bank raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 658.8% during the 2nd quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.2%

CRM opened at $228.03 on Thursday. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $218.96 and a 12 month high of $360.18. The business has a 50-day moving average of $247.30 and a two-hundred day moving average of $248.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $213.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.26.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 1,936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the transaction, the director owned 10,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,761,499.28. This represents a 22.15% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director G Mason Morfit bought 96,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $260.58 per share, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $780,309,155.22. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 140,927 shares of company stock worth $33,146,979. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce won a potential $5.6 billion, 10‑year IDIQ contract from the U.S. Army (via its national security unit) to provide AI, data analytics and modernization services — a multi‑year, defense‑focused revenue stream that boosts backlog visibility and expands Salesforce’s addressable market outside classic CRM. Salesforce wins $5.6B US Army contract for national security technology
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage highlights two long‑horizon deals (the Army contract plus a wildfire/AI engagement), signaling a strategic pivot into mission‑critical AI and government work that could drive higher‑margin services and longer contract durations. This supports the company’s AI positioning and potential new revenue streams. Salesforce Deepens Defense and Wildfire AI Roles With Long-Horizon Deals
• Neutral Sentiment: Wall Street/TV commentary keeps Salesforce on investors’ radars (Jim Cramer, Barclays coverage, Zacks comparisons to Adobe). Analysts highlight AI momentum and margin improvements but the story remains mixed between long‑term opportunity and near‑term execution/valuation questions. Jim Cramer Discusses Salesforce (CRM)
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce granted ~139,574 RSUs to new employees from recent acquisitions (Apromore, Spindle AI, Informatica) — standard acquisition retention, modest dilution and a sign of integration activity. Salesforce Grants Equity Awards to Apromore, Spindle AI, and Informatica Employees
• Negative Sentiment: Technical/market sentiment remains a headwind — recent price weakness (large Y/Y drop and volatile monthly moves) and bearish chart/forecast articles are keeping short‑term pressure on the stock despite the headline deals. Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM) Price Prediction and Forecast 2026–2030 (February 2026)

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on CRM. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. BTIG Research began coverage on Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $335.00 price objective on the stock. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $330.00 to $338.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have given a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.51.

Salesforce 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.