33,156 Shares in Salesforce Inc. $CRM Bought by Exane Asset Management

Key Points

• Exane Asset Management opened a new position in Salesforce, buying 33,156 shares (~$8.78 million), making CRM about 2.0% of the fund and its 14th largest holding.
• Salesforce beat Q4 expectations with $3.81 EPS vs. $3.05 estimate and revenue of $11.20B (up 12.1% YoY), and set FY2027 EPS guidance of 13.110–13.190.
• The board approved a $25 billion share repurchase plan (up to ~14.1% of shares), raised the quarterly dividend to $0.44, and corporate insiders recently bought additional shares.

Exane Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 33,156 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $8,783,000. Salesforce comprises approximately 2.0% of Exane Asset Management's holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Aspire Growth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 1.2% during the third quarter. Aspire Growth Partners LLC now owns 3,355 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $795,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,147,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Code Waechter LLC increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. increased its holdings in Salesforce by 4.9% during the third quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 961 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $228,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.0%

CRM stock opened at $182.13 on Monday. 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 company's 50-day simple moving average is $187.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $223.96. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $163.52 and a 52 week high of $296.05. The company has a market capitalization of $149.02 billion, a PE ratio of 23.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce's revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. This is a boost from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is currently 22.54%.

Insider Activity

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the completion of 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 position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 purchase, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the topic of several research reports. Wolfe Research reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $197.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, March 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $279.18.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BTIG reaffirmed a "buy" on CRM and set a $255 price target (≈40% upside vs. current levels), giving institutional backing that can support further upside. BTIG Reaffirms Buy on Salesforce
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce launched Headless 360, positioning its full platform as infrastructure for AI agents — a strategic move that could broaden addressable market and accelerate enterprise AI spending across the Salesforce stack. Salesforce launches Headless 360
• Positive Sentiment: Customer wins/expansions show traction for Agentforce 360 — travel platform Engine expanded use of AI agents and Slack, automating ~50% of chat cases, cutting handle time ~15% and improving satisfaction, which supports revenue upsell potential for contact-center automation. Engine expands Agentforce 360
• Positive Sentiment: Data 360 adoption shows strong momentum (reported ~200% ARR growth), highlighting a potential new growth driver for larger enterprise contracts and higher‑value deals. CRM's Data 360 Momentum Builds
• Neutral Sentiment: Software-sector momentum helped lift CRM amid a broad bounce in the IGV ETF; sector flows can amplify CRM moves but are not company‑specific fundamentals. Software Stocks Finish Week Hot
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst and media bullishness (e.g., opinion pieces expressing strong conviction) supports sentiment but is not new fundamental data; it can sustain momentum if paired with continued execution. Why I Have Strong Conviction In This Stock
• Negative Sentiment: A recent CMSWire review of Agentforce highlights strengths but also gaps versus rivals (implementation complexity and feature gaps in some areas), a reminder that competitive execution and product parity risk could temper adoption speed. Salesforce Agentforce Contact Center Review

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.

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