Ameritas Advisory Services LLC Purchases 4,422 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Ameritas Advisory Services LLC increased its Salesforce stake by 228.4% in the fourth quarter, buying 4,422 additional shares and bringing its total holding to 6,358 shares worth about $1.684 million.
• Several Salesforce insiders were active buyers in March, including directors Laura Alber and David Blair Kirk, both purchasing about 2,570 shares each in separate transactions.
• Wall Street remains broadly constructive on Salesforce despite price-target cuts, with analysts maintaining a “Moderate Buy” consensus and Salesforce also highlighting strong recent results, a $25 billion buyback authorization, and a raised quarterly dividend.

Ameritas Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 228.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 6,358 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 4,422 shares during the quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,684,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Dogwood Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 285.7% in the 4th quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 108 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% 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 David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the acquisition, 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. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on CRM. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $281.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $278.82.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce landed a $72 million U.S. Air Force agreement tied to a broader Department of Defense contract, expanding its Agentforce AI platform into secure government workflows and reinforcing the company’s AI growth narrative. Salesforce’s Air Force Deal Tests Agentforce’s Role In Secure Government AI
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce continues to attract bullish attention as investors focus on its agentic AI strategy and broader growth story across large-cap software. The Zacks Analyst Blog Meta, Pfizer, Salesforce and Smith-Midland
• Neutral Sentiment: BoldSign launched a Salesforce integration on AgentExchange to streamline agreement workflows, highlighting continued partner ecosystem momentum around the CRM platform. BoldSign Launches Salesforce Integration to Streamline Agreement Workflows
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce received a new $188 price target from Citi, down from $200, reflecting softer enterprise software spending trends and a more cautious near-term outlook. Salesforce NYSE: CRM Given New $188.00 Price Target at Citigroup
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce also remained broadly favored by brokerage firms with an overall “Moderate Buy” rating, suggesting Wall Street still sees upside despite the valuation reset. Salesforce Inc. NYSE: CRM Given Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $167.76 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $137.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $184.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $215.95. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $163.52 and a 1 year high of $292.17.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $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, research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. This is a boost from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.54%.

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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