Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC Raises Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management raised its stake in Salesforce by 1.5% to 270,916 shares, valued at about $71.87 million, while institutional investors own roughly 80.4% of the company.
• Salesforce's board approved a $25 billion share buyback (up to 14.1% of shares) and increased the quarterly dividend to $0.44 (annualized $1.76, ~1.1% yield).
• The company beat quarterly EPS estimates ($3.81 vs. $3.05) and set FY2027 EPS guidance of 13.110–13.190, but the stock is down sharply YTD amid analyst target cuts; consensus rating is a "Moderate Buy" with an average target of $280.21.

Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 270,916 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,951 shares during the quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $71,871,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Dorato Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CRM. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price target on Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Roth Mkm reduced their price target on Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Oppenheimer cut their target price on Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $250.00 target price (down from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $280.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was 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. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,742,271.30. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong underlying fundamentals: recent coverage highlights Salesforce's trailing‑12‑month revenue (~$41.5B), solid profitability (77.6% gross margin, ~13.9% profit margin), nearly $15B operating cash flow and $7.8 diluted EPS — all arguments that the company’s core business can justify a higher multiple over time. Salesforce Stock Is Dropping Today: What's Going On?
• Positive Sentiment: Ecosystem wins / product integrations: Redpanda’s new real‑time, bidirectional connectors to Salesforce position CRM more as a central data hub — a feature that can increase platform stickiness and justify long‑term value capture. Salesforce Connectors From Redpanda Put Focus On CRM Valuation Gap
• Neutral Sentiment: Options activity signaling volatility: recent options flow has drawn attention — heightened options interest can presage larger moves (up or down) around earnings, product news or macro catalysts but is not a directional confirmation on its own. Is the Options Market Predicting a Spike in Salesforce Stock?
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation debate / buy/hold view: some analysts note CRM is down sharply YTD (~35%) and argue the pullback plus ongoing AI adoption and improving growth make it a hold at current prices — this frames the decline as a potential buying opportunity for longer‑term investors. Salesforce Plunges 35% YTD: Should You Buy, Sell or Hold the Stock?
• Negative Sentiment: Sector shock from new AI models: reports about Anthropic’s latest model and broader headlines have sparked a selloff across software stocks, pressuring CRM as investors rotate toward AI infrastructure and hardware beneficiaries. Anthropic's Latest AI Model Sends a Shockwave Through Software Stocks
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/strategy commentary: high‑profile commentary (e.g., Jim Cramer) indicates a renewed “buy hardware, sell software” rotation, which can keep downward pressure on valuation multiples for large software vendors like Salesforce. Cramer explains the divergence in tech stocks – and why software may continue to lag
• Negative Sentiment: Stock price technical and momentum concerns: coverage noting three‑year lows and a steep YTD decline highlight momentum weakness that can perpetuate selling until clearer positive catalysts emerge. Salesforce stock just crashed to 3-year lows; Here's why
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive/product signals: items about alternatives (e.g., Slackbot as a CRM interface) and specialized Salesforce‑based solutions could be read as both ecosystem expansion and potential competitive friction for certain use cases. Slack instead of Salesforce: Slackbot becomes CRM interface

Salesforce Stock Down 3.4%

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $164.99 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $163.52 and a 1 year high of $296.05. The firm has a market cap of $152.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.13, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.29. 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 stock's 50-day simple moving average is $189.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $226.46.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The business had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.78 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter 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, equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. This is a positive change from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce's payout ratio is 22.54%.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company's board 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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding CRM? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.