AE Wealth Management LLC Purchases 40,661 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• AE Wealth Management increased its Salesforce stake by 21.3%, buying 40,661 shares to hold 231,697 shares worth about $61.38 million at the end of the quarter.
• Company actions & results: Salesforce beat Q expectations with $3.81 EPS and $11.2B revenue (+12.1%), provided FY27 EPS guidance (13.110–13.190), raised its quarterly dividend to $0.44, and authorized a $25 billion share buyback (up to ~14.1% of shares).
• Ownership & market view: Institutions own ~80.4% of the stock, directors David Blair Kirk and Laura Alber recently purchased roughly 2,570 shares each, and analysts hold a "Moderate Buy" consensus with an average price target of $279.18 despite recent downward revisions.

AE Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 21.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 231,697 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 40,661 shares during the period. AE Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $61,379,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $8,582,000 after purchasing an additional 3,102 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $611,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $747,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 3.7% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $807,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, United Bank raised its position in Salesforce by 5.2% in the second quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,781,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on CRM. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $215.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Roth Mkm lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. 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.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $279.18.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the purchase, the director 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. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $181.37 on Friday. The company's 50 day moving average is $188.05 and its 200-day moving average is $224.57. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $163.52 and a 12-month high of $296.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a market cap of $167.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.78 earnings per share. The company's quarterly 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. Sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is an increase from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is presently 22.54%.

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

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.

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