North Star Asset Management Inc. Acquires 10,830 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

North Star Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 20.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 64,319 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,830 shares during the period. North Star Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $17,039,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Salesforce by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,800,353,000 after purchasing an additional 270,913 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Salesforce by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,420,657 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $11,732,966,000 after purchasing an additional 159,739 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its position in Salesforce by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,051,119 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,753,519,000 after purchasing an additional 1,729,440 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its position in Salesforce by 159.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,106,255,000 after purchasing an additional 10,636,161 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Salesforce by 11.8% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,155,512 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,695,856,000 after purchasing an additional 754,116 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced an expanded collaboration with Cint to deliver next-generation AI-powered support through Slack, reinforcing the company’s push into agentic enterprise workflows and AI-driven automation. Cint and Salesforce to Deliver the Next Generation of AI-Powered Support
• Positive Sentiment: Several analyst- and media-driven pieces highlighted Salesforce as an attractive AI and software value play, with commentary pointing to strong upside potential and expectations that Q1 results may benefit from continued digital transformation and generative AI adoption. Salesforce Likely to Beat Q1 Earnings Estimates: Time to Buy the Stock?
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street price-target articles continue to suggest meaningful upside for CRM, with analysts’ average target implying a large gain from current levels and some firms still keeping bullish ratings. Does Salesforce (CRM) Have the Potential to Rally 53.21% as Wall Street Analysts Expect?
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce granted 64,296 RSUs to 27 employees tied to the Cimulate acquisition; this is routine retention-related equity compensation and is not likely to materially move the stock on its own. Salesforce Grants Equity Awards to Cimulate Under Its Inducement Equity Incentive Plan
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also focused on Salesforce’s upcoming earnings release and expected post-earnings volatility, which adds uncertainty but no clear directional catalyst yet. Here’s How Much Traders Expect Salesforce Stock Could Move After Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: UBS flagged a mixed enterprise software spending backdrop and said it sees limited signs of near-term acceleration in bookings, which may be weighing on sentiment into earnings. Salesforce faces tough enterprise software backdrop heading into earnings, says UBS
• Negative Sentiment: Bank of America reiterated an Underperform rating with a $160 target, signaling that some analysts remain cautious on the stock despite Salesforce’s strong market position. BofA Maintains Underperform Rating on Salesforce (CRM)

Insider Activity

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the 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 purchase, the director directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM opened at $180.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $147.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $182.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $212.98. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $163.52 and a 52-week high of $280.74.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.78 EPS. 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 predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.54%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday. Northland Securities cut 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 report on Tuesday, March 10th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $188.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $274.12.

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.