Alliancebernstein L.P. Raises Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 11.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,333,323 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 343,024 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned about 0.35% of Salesforce worth $789,998,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in CRM. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the third quarter valued at $26,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Country Trust Bank increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 658.8% during the second quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kilter Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth about $42,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. The trade was a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,742,271.30. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is rolling out Agentforce, its contact-center-as-a-service push aimed at replacing fragmented contact-center stacks—this could deepen wallet-share with large enterprise customers and support growth in CRM-adjacent services. Salesforce Aims to End the ‘Frankenstein’ Contact Center With Agentforce
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce added six Agentforce Health agents pre-wired with integrations for healthcare workflows—strengthens vertical product shelf and could accelerate adoption in a high-value industry. Salesforce Announces Six New Agentforce Health Agents Pre-Wired With Rich Integrations
• Positive Sentiment: Management intends to use net proceeds from the $25B senior-note offering to fund buybacks—this can be EPS-accretive and supports shareholder returns if repurchases are executed. Salesforce Prices Public Offering of Senior Notes
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst roundups following Salesforce’s fiscal Q4 results highlight mixed views—earnings beat and guidance were solid, but some analysts remain cautious on valuation and AI execution risk. What are Analysts Thinking of Salesforce (CRM) Following Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2026 Results?
• Neutral Sentiment: Formal notice that the $25B notes have been priced is a factual development—markets are focused on coupon levels and close conditions. Salesforce Prices Public Offering of Senior Notes
• Neutral Sentiment: Competitive ecosystem moves: LivePerson launched integrations that work with Salesforce, underscoring partner/competitor dynamics in conversational AI and contact-center orchestration. LivePerson Announces Event-driven Orchestration Partnership with Coral Active
• Negative Sentiment: Market commentary warns investors demanded higher yields on the bond sale—Zacks flags caution around rising leverage and AI uncertainty, which can pressure multiples and sentiment. Salesforce Taps Bonds for Buybacks as Investors Demand More Yield
• Negative Sentiment: Recent analyst downgrade(s) and at least one pessimistic price forecast have added selling pressure and negative sentiment near term. Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price Down 2% on Analyst Downgrade Northland Securities Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on CRM shares. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $325.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 17th. Evercore reduced their target price on Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 target price (down from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Salesforce from $197.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $282.06.

Salesforce Trading Down 3.3%

Shares of CRM opened at $192.63 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $174.57 and a 12-month high of $296.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $177.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $210.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $235.09. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. This is a boost from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.54%.

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.