ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd Acquires 6,550 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd grew its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 27.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 30,495 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,550 shares during the period. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $7,227,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Quaker Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings 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 valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares during the last quarter. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Country Trust Bank lifted its stake in Salesforce by 658.8% in the 2nd quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related 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 completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at $2,761,499.28. The trade was a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 96,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The stock was bought at an average price of $260.58 per share, with a total value of $25,015,680.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 2,994,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $780,309,155.22. This trade represents a 3.31% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the subject of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Monday, January 12th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $330.00 price target for the company. Bank of America dropped their target price on Salesforce from $325.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Citigroup cut their price target on Salesforce from $257.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Northland Securities upped their price objective on Salesforce from $264.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $310.89.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Seeking Alpha upgraded CRM to Buy, arguing Q4 could prove a catalyst (revenue acceleration, backlog expansion, clearer AI impacts). Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: BTIG cut its price target (from $335 to $260) but maintained a Buy rating — a bullish vote despite the reduced conviction level. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple bullish analyst/coverage pieces highlight Agentforce and Salesforce’s founder-led durability as reasons CRM can defend/grow in an AI-driven market. Agentforce Article Founder-Led Article
• Neutral Sentiment: RBC issued a Hold and Wells Fargo moved to Equal Weight after trimming targets, signaling more cautious near-term expectations from big banks. RBC Hold Wells Fargo/Citigroup notes
• Neutral Sentiment: Dividend/earnings-watch pieces and “buy-the-dip” technical calls argue CRM may be oversold and ripe for a reversal; these are supportive but speculative until Q4 results. Buy-the-dip Article
• Negative Sentiment: Unusually heavy put buying — investors purchased ~131,990 put options (≈ +84% vs. typical volume) — indicates elevated bearish hedging/speculation that can pressure the stock.
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst downgrades and pessimistic forecasts (e.g., Mizuho; a separate trading note flagged a downgrade that pushed shares lower) are weighing on sentiment and liquidity. Mizuho Forecast Trading Down After Downgrade
• Negative Sentiment: Sector weakness tied to AI-driven re-ratings in software (examples: Palo Alto guidance reaction) and headlines labeling CRM among the Dow’s laggards add downward pressure. CNBC Sector Piece 247WallSt

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $185.35 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market cap of $173.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.75, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.27. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $232.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $240.59. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $180.24 and a 12-month high of $324.45.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted 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 return on equity of 14.41% and a net margin of 17.91%.The firm had revenue of $10.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.27 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.41 EPS. 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. On average, analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

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.