Norges Bank Takes Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 10,363,597 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,826,049,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the first quarter worth $2,039,196,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 27,361.5% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,424,169 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $933,737,000 after purchasing an additional 3,411,700 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 1,729.6% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,973,141 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $538,020,000 after buying an additional 1,865,297 shares in the last quarter. Longview Partners Guernsey LTD acquired a new position in Salesforce during the first quarter worth about $467,944,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Salesforce by 1.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 87,913,628 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $23,592,501,000 after buying an additional 1,383,942 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 122 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $259.00, for a total value of $31,598.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,085,096,889. The trade was a 0.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders sold 54,122 shares of company stock worth $13,367,438 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Salesforce from $275.00 to $265.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. Northland Capmk downgraded Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Roth Capital restated a “buy” rating and issued a $395.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Northland Securities cut shares of Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $264.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Twenty-five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $322.86.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $228.27 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $243.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $254.90. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $221.96 and a 52 week high of $369.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $217.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.18, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $10.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.14 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 16.87% and a return on equity of 13.27%. The company’s revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.56 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2026 guidance at 11.330-11.370 EPS. Q3 2026 guidance at 2.840-2.860 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 17th were given a dividend of $0.416 per share. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 17th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 24.13%.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology that brings companies and customers together worldwide. The company's service includes sales to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, gain insights through analytics and artificial intelligence, and deliver quotes, contracts, and invoices; and service that enables companies to deliver trusted and highly personalized customer support at scale.