Goldentree Asset Management LP Invests $39.78 Million in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Goldentree Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 168,186 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $39,784,000. Salesforce accounts for about 3.3% of Goldentree Asset Management LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Aspire Growth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Aspire Growth Partners LLC now owns 3,355 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $795,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 3.1% during the third quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. now owns 1,420 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $337,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. 17 Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.9% during the second quarter. 17 Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,321 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $633,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Code Waechter LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 5.3% during the third quarter. Code Waechter LLC now owns 871 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $209,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Salesforce by 40.9% in the 2nd quarter. Capital A Wealth Management LLC now owns 155 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on CRM. Northland Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Macquarie Infrastructure boosted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Roth Mkm reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $280.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,742,271.30. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Board authorized a $25 billion share repurchase program and initiated an accelerated buyback, signaling management confidence and likely near‑term support for the stock. Stock Buyback Plan Initiated by Salesforce
• Positive Sentiment: Strong product momentum from Agentic AI, Agentforce and Data Cloud is driving higher bookings and revenue growth prospects — a core reason bulls expect reacceleration in CRM’s top line. Salesforce’s Agentic AI Push
• Positive Sentiment: Partnership with NVIDIA to embed AI agents into workflows strengthens Salesforce’s go‑to‑market for AI features and could accelerate adoption across enterprise customers. Salesforce Teams with NVIDIA
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst commentary remains mixed-to-supportive: some firms reiterated buy ratings on the capital allocation strategy, but views differ on risk/reward given the new leverage. Buy Rating on Capital Allocation
• Neutral Sentiment: Third‑party comparisons and coverage pieces (e.g., head‑to‑head with smaller rivals) are airing but aren’t driving material moves relative to the buyback/debt story. Unitronix vs Salesforce Comparison
• Negative Sentiment: The $25 billion accelerated share repurchase and $6 billion term loan are largely debt‑funded (multi‑tranche senior notes and refinancing), materially changing Salesforce’s capital structure and raising concerns about leverage, interest expense and long‑dated maturities. That shift is the main near‑term bearish catalyst. Bull Case Could Change After Debt-Funded Buyback

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $194.47 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $174.57 and a 52-week high of $296.05. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $206.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $233.88. The company has a market capitalization of $179.50 billion, a PE ratio of 24.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.78 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue 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. Equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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 paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is a positive change from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.25%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

About Salesforce

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.