Sanders Capital LLC Sells 82,336 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

07 Nov 2026, 16:57 by Mitch Edgeman · The Markets Daily

Sanders Capital LLC lowered its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM – Free Report) by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 9,533,018 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 82,336 shares during the quarter. Salesforce makes up 2.1% of Sanders Capital LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Sanders Capital LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $2,188,495,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter valued at approximately $11,396,844,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth approximately $1,914,086,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in Salesforce by 130.2% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,363,096,000 after buying an additional 7,160,302 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth approximately $927,332,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter worth $844,928,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings raised Salesforce from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 24th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 12th. DA Davidson boosted their price target on Salesforce from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 21st. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, October 21st. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-two have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.98.

View Our Latest Stock Report on Salesforce

Salesforce Stock Down 3.8%

CRM traded down $8.45 during trading on Friday, hitting $213.96. The stock had a trading volume of 6,708,466 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,142,592. The company has a market capitalization of $176.09 billion, a PE ratio of 19.50, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.24. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $146.32 and a twelve month high of $269.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.84. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $239.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $198.64.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.91 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 17th were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 17th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 16.04%.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s planned acquisition of AI voice-agent company Cresta could strengthen Agentforce and Service Cloud, adding capabilities for customer-service automation. The deal also brings acquisition costs and execution risks. Article: Salesforce Bets on AI Voice Agents With Planned Cresta Acquisition
Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research upgraded Salesforce from “hold” to “strong buy,” a favorable analyst signal that may help counter near-term concerns. Article: Zacks Research rating
Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce is expanding its Coworker offering and promoting a 21-times growth claim, but the report notes that no baseline is provided, making the figure difficult to assess. Article: Salesforce Expands Coworker’s Reach, but Its 21× Growth Claim Has No Baseline
Neutral Sentiment: The company is extending Agent Fabric to help businesses manage AI agents across platforms. Its large customer base and reported 1.2 billion daily requests suggest potential, but investors still need evidence that the AI activity will translate into meaningful revenue. Article: Salesforce Stock: The 1 Number Investors Still Need to See
Negative Sentiment: A broader software sell-off is weighing on CRM, while S&P Global Ratings cut Salesforce’s credit rating to A from A+. S&P cited acquisition spending and a $25 billion debt-financed buyback, which lifted pro forma net debt relative to EBITDA above its previous downgrade threshold. The rating action raises concerns about leverage and aggressive capital allocation. Article: S&P cuts Salesforce to A on rising acquisition debt and buybacks

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In related news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total transaction of $1,172,745.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 5,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,416,936.57. This represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 4,176 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $239.33 per share, with a total value of $999,442.08. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 18,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,486,958.84. The trade was a 28.66% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Salesforce

(Free Report)

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company best known for customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Its platform helps businesses manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce and customer data, and includes products such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Data Cloud and Agentforce.

The company also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data analytics and visualization, and MuleSoft for connecting applications and data. Salesforce’s products are used by organizations across a range of industries and are available to customers around the world.

Founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff and other co-founders, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco.