Arvest Bank Trust Division Cuts Stock Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Arvest Bank Trust Division sharply reduced its Salesforce stake by 96.8% in the fourth quarter, selling 39,034 shares and ending with 1,297 shares worth about $344,000.
• Salesforce’s latest quarterly results were strong, with EPS of $3.88 and revenue of $11.13 billion, both above estimates and up 13.3% year over year. The company also said Agentforce annualized revenue topped $1 billion.
• Despite the beat, investors remain cautious because full-year revenue guidance was only slightly below expectations and AI-related competition continues to weigh on sentiment. Salesforce’s board also authorized a $25 billion share buyback, and analysts currently rate the stock a Moderate Buy with an average target price of $272.73.

Arvest Bank Trust Division lessened its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 96.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,297 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 39,034 shares during the period. Arvest Bank Trust Division's holdings in Salesforce were worth $344,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CRM. Byrne Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $1,147,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Mathes Company Inc. grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.4% during the third quarter. Mathes Company Inc. now owns 12,558 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $2,976,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $3,548,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.5% during the third quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,372 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $325,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fulcrum Asset Management LLP grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.7% during the third quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP now owns 2,774 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $657,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, 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 position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was bought at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the transaction, 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. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Company insiders own 3.50% of the company's stock.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce topped Wall Street expectations for Q1, posting EPS of $3.88 and revenue of $11.13 billion, supported by continued adoption of its AI-powered tools and strong double-digit revenue growth. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: The company said Agentforce annualized revenue passed the $1 billion mark, reinforcing the case that its AI products are becoming a meaningful growth driver. CNBC article
• Positive Sentiment: Management also raised full-year profit guidance and said it will keep investing in strong products and share buybacks, which may help support shareholder returns. CNBC article
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Marc Benioff pushed back on fears that AI rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic will disrupt Salesforce, arguing the company’s software remains central to enterprise customers. CNBC article
• Negative Sentiment: Investors were disappointed that revenue guidance for the year came in only slightly below expectations, while backlog metrics also appeared softer than hoped, tempering enthusiasm around the beat. CNBC article
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce remains weighed down by investor concern that AI could reshape the enterprise software market and pressure long-term growth, keeping the stock volatile despite the quarter’s solid results. Benzinga article

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CRM. KeyCorp cut their price objective on Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Northland Securities cut their price objective on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Bank of America began coverage on Salesforce in a research report on Monday, May 18th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $160.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on Salesforce from $200.00 to $188.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $272.73.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.7%

CRM opened at $177.86 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $145.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $163.52 and a 12 month high of $278.81. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $181.23 and a 200 day moving average of $211.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The firm's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.58 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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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