Advanced Portfolio Management LLC Buys Shares of 4,995 Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Advanced Portfolio Management LLC opened a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter, buying 4,995 shares valued at about $1.323 million. The stake makes Salesforce its 8th-largest holding and about 4% of its portfolio.
• Salesforce reported strong quarterly results, with earnings of $3.88 per share beating estimates and revenue of $11.13 billion topping expectations. Revenue rose 13.3% year over year, and the company also issued upbeat guidance for FY 2027 and Q2 2027.
• The company has a $25 billion stock buyback authorization and recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, yielding about 1.1%. At the same time, analysts remain mixed, with several lowering targets even as the consensus rating stays Moderate Buy.

Advanced Portfolio Management LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 4,995 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,323,000. Salesforce comprises approximately 4.0% of Advanced Portfolio Management LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $154.88 on Thursday. The company's fifty day moving average price is $178.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $205.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $126.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.93, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $154.23 and a one year high of $276.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.58 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced a $3.6 billion acquisition of Fin, a customer AI agent platform, reinforcing its push into agentic AI and potentially expanding its automation and customer-service capabilities. Salesforce to acquire customer AI agent platform Fin for $3.6B
• Positive Sentiment: Some analysts remain constructive, with reaffirmed Buy ratings and targets well above the current share price, suggesting potential upside if Salesforce’s AI strategy and cash generation continue to improve. Analyst rating updates
• Neutral Sentiment: UBS reiterated a Neutral rating, reflecting a wait-and-see stance as investors assess whether Salesforce can convert its AI investments into faster growth. UBS sticks neutral
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports highlighting strong cash flow, rising margins, and a large buyback plan support the view that Salesforce still has financial flexibility to reward shareholders while investing in growth. CRM's Record Cash Generation Support Robust Shareholder Returns
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple articles raised concerns that Salesforce’s acquisition-heavy strategy may not be translating into sustained growth reacceleration, with some analysts cutting fair value estimates and questioning AI monetization. Salesforce (CRM) Stock Sees Fair Value Cut As Analysts Question AI Growth Path
• Negative Sentiment: Commentary also pointed to “unit economic” concerns and recent share-price weakness, suggesting investors are worried the market is still paying closer attention to execution risk than to the long-term AI opportunity. Salesforce: Putting The Spotlight On The Unit Economic Concerns

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on CRM shares. DA Davidson dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 28th. KeyCorp decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, BTIG Research reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $255.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $259.26.

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.

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