Mechanics Financial Corp Has $688,000 Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Mechanics Financial Corp raised its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 5,708.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,904 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,854 shares during the period. Mechanics Financial Corp’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $688,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter valued at $27,000. Quaker Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 208.6% during the second quarter. Quaker Wealth Management LLC now owns 126 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 242 shares during the last quarter. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Country Trust Bank lifted its stake in Salesforce by 658.8% in the second quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strategists say the recent AI‑driven sell-off creates a buying opportunity in higher‑quality software names, highlighting Salesforce as a rebound candidate as investors rotate back into beaten-down leaders. AI disruption create buying chance
• Positive Sentiment: MarketBeat argues AI fears are overblown and profiles Salesforce as underestimated, citing strong AI/product positioning, recent outperformance on earnings, and analyst upside — a bullish case for a multi‑quarter rebound. AI Disruption Overblown
• Positive Sentiment: Forbes highlights Salesforce’s history of sharp rebounds and argues the stock is primed for a major recovery if execution and AI monetization continue, supporting an investors‑buy‑the‑dip thesis. Forbes rebound thesis
• Positive Sentiment: Brokerage coverage has turned constructive in places (Wedbush among them), calling the “software Armageddon” sentiment overdone and recommending accumulation of enterprise SaaS names including CRM. Wedbush bullish on Salesforce
• Positive Sentiment: Market breadth improved as Nasdaq regained ground and the Fear & Greed index moved toward neutral, reducing technical pressure on large-cap software stocks like Salesforce. Nasdaq rebound and sentiment
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts note CRM has fallen roughly 17% over six months; coverage pieces weigh the pullback versus Salesforce’s AI runway and recurring revenue strength — framing this as a possible buying opportunity but not a consensus trigger. Zacks six‑month pullback
• Neutral Sentiment: Several roundup pieces include CRM among blue‑chip/software names to watch, reflecting continued analyst interest but not providing new company‑specific catalysts. Zacks blue‑chip list
• Negative Sentiment: Company headcount was trimmed by fewer than 1,000 roles (reported across marketing, product and data teams), which introduces short‑term execution risk and signals cost‑cutting/realignment that investors may view as a near‑term negative. Reuters on Salesforce layoffs

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CRM. Northland Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $264.00 to $267.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Wall Street Zen raised Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 28th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Salesforce from $280.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.57.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director G Mason Morfit bought 96,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $260.58 per share, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $780,309,155.22. This represents a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the acquisition, the director owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $193.42 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $241.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $244.02. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $185.73 and a 12-month high of $330.35. The company has a market capitalization of $181.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $3.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.86 by $0.39. The company 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%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.41 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 18th were issued a dividend of $0.416 per share. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 22.16%.

About Salesforce

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.