Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Acquired by HF Advisory Group LLC

HF Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1,252.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 105,176 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 97,402 shares during the period. Salesforce makes up about 1.1% of HF Advisory Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding. HF Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $27,862,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX bought a new stake in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 3rd quarter valued at about $39,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Company fundamentals and guidance remain supportive: Salesforce recently reported stronger-than-expected quarterly EPS and raised FY‑2027 guidance, underpinning confidence in cash generation and margins. Earnings & guidance
• Positive Sentiment: Accelerated $25B buyback: Analysts expect Salesforce to materially ramp repurchases in FY‑2027; a large, accelerated buyback reduces share count and supports EPS, a clear bullish catalyst. Salesforce asserts growth and cash trajectory with accelerated $25B buyback
• Positive Sentiment: AI product traction: Agentforce showing 169% ARR growth and strong deal flow, while Slack/Slackbot received a major AI feature boost — both support recurring revenue expansion and cross‑sell into Sales/Service clouds. These product wins help justify higher forward multiples. Agentforce AI growth Slack adds 30 AI features
• Positive Sentiment: Bullish analyst and price-target moves: BTIG reaffirmed a Buy and set a $255 target, giving upside from current levels and supporting investor sentiment. BTIG buy rating $255 PT
• Neutral Sentiment: Insiders/whale activity: Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater disclosed a minor reduction in its long-standing CRM stake; the move appears modest and more portfolio rebalancing than a conviction change. Dalio reduces holding
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry integrations: A compliance‑focused messaging partner launched a native integration for Marketing Cloud (helps adoption in regulated verticals but is incremental). Compliance messaging integration
• Negative Sentiment: Bear activity and sector skepticism: A noted short seller highlighted an “AI paradox” trade against Salesforce and other software names, and broader software sell‑offs this year keep downside risk if AI expectations disappoint. These narratives can pressure the stock despite company-level positives. Short seller activity Sector sell-off context

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $375.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, KeyCorp cut their target price on Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.21.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $186.29 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $196.19 and a 200-day moving average of $229.51. The firm has a market cap of $171.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $174.57 and a twelve month high of $296.05. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.78 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

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

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.