Connors Investor Services Inc. Sells 3,534 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Connors Investor Services reduced its Salesforce stake by 6.3% in the fourth quarter, selling 3,534 shares and ending with 52,680 shares valued at about $13.95 million.
• Salesforce continues to attract mixed but mostly positive analyst coverage, with a Moderate Buy consensus and a market-implied price target of $274.12, though some firms remain cautious with lower targets and neutral-to-underperform ratings.
• The company recently posted solid results and shareholder returns, including Q4 EPS of $3.81 versus $3.05 expected, a higher quarterly dividend of $0.44, and a newly authorized $25 billion share repurchase program.

Connors Investor Services Inc. lowered its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 6.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 52,680 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 3,534 shares during the period. Connors Investor Services Inc.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $13,950,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. 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 buying an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. BTIG Research reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $255.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, April 17th. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and set a $375.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. 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. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Salesforce from $235.00 to $210.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, DA Davidson cut their target price on Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $274.12.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company's stock.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced an expanded collaboration with Cint to deliver next-generation AI-powered support through Slack, reinforcing the company’s push into agentic enterprise workflows and AI-driven automation. Cint and Salesforce to Deliver the Next Generation of AI-Powered Support
• Positive Sentiment: Several analyst- and media-driven pieces highlighted Salesforce as an attractive AI and software value play, with commentary pointing to strong upside potential and expectations that Q1 results may benefit from continued digital transformation and generative AI adoption. Salesforce Likely to Beat Q1 Earnings Estimates: Time to Buy the Stock?
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street price-target articles continue to suggest meaningful upside for CRM, with analysts’ average target implying a large gain from current levels and some firms still keeping bullish ratings. Does Salesforce (CRM) Have the Potential to Rally 53.21% as Wall Street Analysts Expect?
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce granted 64,296 RSUs to 27 employees tied to the Cimulate acquisition; this is routine retention-related equity compensation and is not likely to materially move the stock on its own. Salesforce Grants Equity Awards to Cimulate Under Its Inducement Equity Incentive Plan
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also focused on Salesforce’s upcoming earnings release and expected post-earnings volatility, which adds uncertainty but no clear directional catalyst yet. Here's How Much Traders Expect Salesforce Stock Could Move After Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: UBS flagged a mixed enterprise software spending backdrop and said it sees limited signs of near-term acceleration in bookings, which may be weighing on sentiment into earnings. Salesforce faces tough enterprise software backdrop heading into earnings, says UBS
• Negative Sentiment: Bank of America reiterated an Underperform rating with a $160 target, signaling that some analysts remain cautious on the stock despite Salesforce’s strong market position. BofA Maintains Underperform Rating on Salesforce (CRM)

Salesforce Stock Up 2.3%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $180.32 on Friday. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $182.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $212.98. The firm has a market cap of $147.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.09, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $163.52 and a 52-week high of $280.74.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.78 earnings per share. 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 forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend 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 currently 22.54%.

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