Douglas Lane & Associates LLC Acquires 23,403 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Douglas Lane & Associates increased its stake in Salesforce by 9.3%, buying 23,403 shares to bring its holding to 276,131 shares valued at about $73.15 million at the end of Q4.
• Salesforce reported a Q4 earnings beat (EPS $3.81 vs. $3.05 estimate; revenue $11.20B, +12.1% y/y), set FY2027 EPS guidance of 13.110–13.190, authorized a $25 billion share repurchase (≈14.1% of shares) and raised the quarterly dividend to $0.44 (1.0% yield).

Douglas Lane & Associates LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 9.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 276,131 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 23,403 shares during the period. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $73,150,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce in the third quarter worth $26,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Dorato Capital Management acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth $39,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $170.82 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $167.12 and a 12-month high of $296.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $157.67 billion, a PE ratio of 21.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $190.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $227.04.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted 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 firm 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 company's quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $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. Research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its board has authorized 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 buy up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is a positive change from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce's payout ratio is currently 21.25%.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst Dan Ives argues the recent sell-off may be overdone and that CIO feedback shows AI deployments moving from pilot to large-scale rollouts in 2026, which should benefit major enterprise software vendors over time. Microsoft, Salesforce, ServiceNow Sell-Off Is Overdone: Dan Ives
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is expanding ecosystem reach via a partnership to supply cloud communications infrastructure for its Agentforce Contact Center, supporting product adoption and platform stickiness. Salesforce, Inc (CRM) Partners With A Key Cloud Communications Provider
• Positive Sentiment: A Navatar offering built on Salesforce shows third-party vendors continue to choose CRM as an enterprise platform, reinforcing Salesforce’s role in vertical workflows (M&A banking use case). Navatar Unveils AI-Powered M&A CRM Operating Model for Investment Banks and Boutique Advisors
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent benchmarking pieces review Salesforce’s Q4 results and metrics; the firm beat EPS and revenue estimates and reiterated multi-year growth targets, underscoring solid fundamentals even as multiples compress. Sales Software Stocks Q4 Results: Benchmarking Salesforce NYSE: CRM
• Neutral Sentiment: Zacks highlights investor attention on CRM and summarizes factors to watch—product momentum, margins, and AI investments—useful but not immediately price-moving. Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) is Attracting Investor Attention: Here is What You Should Know
• Negative Sentiment: Investors dumped software stocks after Anthropic released a powerful new model, prompting concerns that increasingly capable AI could accelerate competition, margin pressure, or change software value chains. This sector-wide fear is weighing on CRM. Anthropic's Latest AI Model Sends a Shockwave Through Software Stocks
• Negative Sentiment: CNBC’s Jim Cramer notes a renewed rotation into hardware/infrastructure names and away from software, favoring companies that underpin AI data centers—an allocation shift that pressures software multiple compression. Cramer explains the divergence in tech stocks – and why software may continue to lag
• Negative Sentiment: A report shows Slackbot being used as a CRM interface, highlighting potential competitive/usage threats if customers choose lighter, integrated Slack workflows over traditional Salesforce modules for some use cases. Slack instead of Salesforce: Slackbot becomes CRM interface

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were acquired 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 of the company's stock, valued at $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 is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 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 directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on CRM. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $197.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $281.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $280.21.

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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