ING Groep NV Sells 34,920 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

ING Groep NV lowered its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 5.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 580,437 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 34,920 shares during the period. Salesforce makes up 0.7% of ING Groep NV’s holdings, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. ING Groep NV owned 0.06% of Salesforce worth $137,564,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in Salesforce by 15.1% during the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 467,551 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $113,420,000 after purchasing an additional 61,270 shares in the last quarter. AGF Management Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 42.2% in the 3rd quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 281,054 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $66,610,000 after purchasing an additional 83,403 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 64.2% during the 3rd quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 30,111 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $7,149,000 after buying an additional 11,777 shares during the last quarter. Alta Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Salesforce by 1,104.7% in the third quarter. Alta Capital Management LLC now owns 13,493 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,198,000 after buying an additional 12,373 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gallacher Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the third quarter valued at about $785,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the subject of a number of research reports. Evercore dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 4th. BTIG Research assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. They set a “buy” rating and a $335.00 price objective for the company. Northland Securities raised their target price on shares of Salesforce from $264.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Guggenheim restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reissued a “market outperform” rating and issued a $430.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, December 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $323.57.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 96,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 5th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $260.58 per share, for a total transaction of $25,015,680.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares in the company, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. The trade was a 3.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of CRM opened at $193.42 on Wednesday. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $185.73 and a fifty-two week high of $330.35. The firm has a market cap of $181.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. The business has a 50-day moving average of $241.96 and a 200 day moving average of $244.02.

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, 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 firm had revenue of $10.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.41 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.020-3.040 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Salesforce News Roundup

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

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.