Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 130.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,804 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,286 shares during the period. Annis Gardner Whiting Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,376,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,826,049,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Salesforce by 27,361.5% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,424,169 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $933,737,000 after acquiring an additional 3,411,700 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in Salesforce by 1,729.6% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,973,141 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $538,020,000 after acquiring an additional 1,865,297 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 26.2% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,087,545,000 after purchasing an additional 1,612,413 shares during the period. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 45.8% during the second quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 3,931,945 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,072,202,000 after purchasing an additional 1,234,969 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce won a potential $5.6 billion, 10‑year IDIQ contract from the U.S. Army (via its national security unit) to provide AI, data analytics and modernization services — a multi‑year, defense‑focused revenue stream that boosts backlog visibility and expands Salesforce’s addressable market outside classic CRM. Salesforce wins $5.6B US Army contract for national security technology
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage highlights two long‑horizon deals (the Army contract plus a wildfire/AI engagement), signaling a strategic pivot into mission‑critical AI and government work that could drive higher‑margin services and longer contract durations. This supports the company’s AI positioning and potential new revenue streams. Salesforce Deepens Defense and Wildfire AI Roles With Long-Horizon Deals
• Neutral Sentiment: Wall Street/TV commentary keeps Salesforce on investors’ radars (Jim Cramer, Barclays coverage, Zacks comparisons to Adobe). Analysts highlight AI momentum and margin improvements but the story remains mixed between long‑term opportunity and near‑term execution/valuation questions. Jim Cramer Discusses Salesforce (CRM)
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce granted ~139,574 RSUs to new employees from recent acquisitions (Apromore, Spindle AI, Informatica) — standard acquisition retention, modest dilution and a sign of integration activity. Salesforce Grants Equity Awards to Apromore, Spindle AI, and Informatica Employees
• Negative Sentiment: Technical/market sentiment remains a headwind — recent price weakness (large Y/Y drop and volatile monthly moves) and bearish chart/forecast articles are keeping short‑term pressure on the stock despite the headline deals. Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM) Price Prediction and Forecast 2026–2030 (February 2026)

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 28th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Salesforce from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Arete Research raised Salesforce to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.51.

Salesforce Stock Performance

CRM stock opened at $228.03 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market cap of $213.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.26. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $218.96 and a 12-month high of $360.18. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $247.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $248.09.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 18th were paid a dividend of $0.416 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, December 18th. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 22.16%.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In related news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $258.20, for a total value of $580,950.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 11,911,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,075,567,632.20. This trade represents a 0.02% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were bought at an average price of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 140,927 shares of company stock valued at $33,146,979 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Company 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.