Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd Purchases New Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd. disclosed a new fourth-quarter stake in Salesforce, buying 11,111 shares valued at about $2.94 million.
• Institutional interest remains strong, with several hedge funds and wealth firms increasing or initiating positions; overall, institutions and hedge funds own about 80.43% of Salesforce shares.
• Salesforce is drawing mixed sentiment ahead of earnings: it has positive AI-related momentum and bullish analyst targets, but some firms remain cautious, with UBS citing a tough software spending backdrop and BofA keeping an Underperform rating.

Life Cycle Investment Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 11,111 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,943,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Pathfinder Wealth Consulting Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $414,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 159.2% during the 4th quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 26,032 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $6,896,000 after acquiring an additional 15,990 shares in the last quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 34.5% during the 4th quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 203,769 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $54,249,000 after acquiring an additional 52,277 shares in the last quarter. Associated Banc Corp raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 18.2% during the 4th quarter. Associated Banc Corp now owns 212,311 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $56,243,000 after acquiring an additional 32,676 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Millennium Group LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 51,300.0% during the 4th quarter. New Millennium Group LLC now owns 514 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $136,000 after acquiring an additional 513 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce News Roundup

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)

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $280.00 price objective on Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $274.12.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE:CRM opened at $180.32 on Monday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $163.52 and a 1 year high of $280.74. The stock has a market cap of $147.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.09, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14. The business has a fifty day moving average of $182.26 and a 200-day moving average of $212.64. 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 (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released 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. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $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. Equities analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current year.

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