Chicago Capital LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Chicago Capital LLC cut its stake in Salesforce by 18.4% in Q4, selling 7,921 shares and leaving it with 35,046 shares valued at $9.284 million.
• Salesforce beat expectations for the quarter (EPS $3.81 vs. $3.05; revenue $11.20B vs. $11.18B), raised FY27 guidance, authorized a $25 billion share buyback and increased the quarterly dividend to $0.44.
• Institutional ownership is high at 80.43%, with major investors like Capital World Investors and Capital International Investors holding large positions, and analysts maintaining a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with a $279.18 price target.

Chicago Capital LLC reduced its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 18.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 35,046 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 7,921 shares during the period. Chicago Capital LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $9,284,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 159.0% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $4,106,255,000 after purchasing an additional 10,636,161 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter valued at approximately $484,852,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 285.4% in the third quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 2,487,627 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $589,568,000 after purchasing an additional 1,842,117 shares during the last quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter valued at approximately $431,157,000. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 9.4% in the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,051,119 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $4,753,519,000 after purchasing an additional 1,729,440 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $182.13 on Friday. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $187.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $224.13. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $163.52 and a 52 week high of $296.05. 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 company has a market cap of $168.10 billion, a PE ratio of 23.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The business's revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $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, equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS 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 given a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. This is a boost from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce's payout ratio is 22.54%.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the topic of several research reports. Roth Mkm lowered their price target 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. BTIG Research reissued a "buy" rating and set a $255.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One investment 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $279.18.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BTIG reaffirmed a "buy" on CRM and set a $255 price target (≈40% upside vs. current levels), giving institutional backing that can support further upside. BTIG Reaffirms Buy on Salesforce
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce launched Headless 360, positioning its full platform as infrastructure for AI agents — a strategic move that could broaden addressable market and accelerate enterprise AI spending across the Salesforce stack. Salesforce launches Headless 360
• Positive Sentiment: Customer wins/expansions show traction for Agentforce 360 — travel platform Engine expanded use of AI agents and Slack, automating ~50% of chat cases, cutting handle time ~15% and improving satisfaction, which supports revenue upsell potential for contact-center automation. Engine expands Agentforce 360
• Positive Sentiment: Data 360 adoption shows strong momentum (reported ~200% ARR growth), highlighting a potential new growth driver for larger enterprise contracts and higher‑value deals. CRM's Data 360 Momentum Builds
• Neutral Sentiment: Software-sector momentum helped lift CRM amid a broad bounce in the IGV ETF; sector flows can amplify CRM moves but are not company‑specific fundamentals. Software Stocks Finish Week Hot
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst and media bullishness (e.g., opinion pieces expressing strong conviction) supports sentiment but is not new fundamental data; it can sustain momentum if paired with continued execution. Why I Have Strong Conviction In This Stock
• Negative Sentiment: A recent CMSWire review of Agentforce highlights strengths but also gaps versus rivals (implementation complexity and feature gaps in some areas), a reminder that competitive execution and product parity risk could temper adoption speed. Salesforce Agentforce Contact Center Review

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following 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 acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were 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 directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

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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