Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. Trims Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Migdal Insurance cut its Salesforce stake by 53.4% in Q4, selling 3,041 shares and holding 2,655 shares valued at about $705,000 at quarter-end.
• Insider buying: directors David Blair Kirk and Laura Alber each purchased roughly 2,570 shares in March at about $194.60, increasing their holdings by ~23% and ~37%, respectively.
• Corporate actions and sentiment: Salesforce authorized up to a $25 billion share buyback and raised the quarterly dividend to $0.44, while analysts trimmed price targets but the consensus remains a Moderate Buy with an average target of $279.18.

Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. lessened its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 53.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,655 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 3,041 shares during the quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $705,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the third quarter worth $26,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their target price on Salesforce from $260.00 to $200.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped 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. Roth Mkm cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Northland Securities lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, BTIG Research reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $255.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, April 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $279.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 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 ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Expanded Google Cloud partnership accelerates end-to-end AI agent deployments across Salesforce and Google tools, addressing fragmented data and making Agentforce + Gemini integrations more attractive to large customers. This can boost adoption and monetization of Agentforce. Salesforce and Google Cloud Enable AI Agents to Act Across Both Platforms with Deep Context and End-to-End Workflows
• Positive Sentiment: Strong Agentforce traction: usage-based pricing and enterprise adoption are driving rapid ARR growth (Agentforce ARR cited at ~$800M, high y/y growth and rising agentic actions), supporting a case for durable AI-driven revenue expansion. Salesforce: AI Is A True Acceleration Driver, Not A Hollow Rebrand
• Positive Sentiment: Product improvement: Agent Fabric upgrade adds centralized control, automated model discovery and governance—features that reduce enterprise friction for multi-vendor AI rollouts and help Salesforce compete on security and manageability. Salesforce Pushes Deeper Into Enterprise AI Control With Agent Fabric Upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Notable investor interest: Michael Burry is building positions in software names, including plans to buy Salesforce at a discount — a high-profile contrarian vote of confidence that can attract value-minded buyers. Michael Burry plans to buy Salesforce stock for crucial reason
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Truist reaffirmed a Buy after TDX, and coverage highlighting the company as a large-cap buy suggests some analyst conviction behind the rally. Is Salesforce (CRM) One of the Best Large Cap Stocks to Buy Right Now?
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-term momentum/market commentary: Zacks pieces explain why CRM outpaced the market and why it scores as a momentum stock—useful framing for traders but not new fundamental data. Why Salesforce (CRM) Outpaced the Stock Market Today
• Neutral Sentiment: Competitive comparison: Coverage contrasting Salesforce with Adobe highlights areas where Adobe may have an edge on valuation or EPS outlook—an important context for relative valuation debates but not an immediate operational shift. Salesforce vs. Adobe: Which AI-Driven Software Stock Has an Edge?
• Negative Sentiment: Investor caution over AI disruption: Vulcan Value Partners and other commentary flagged AI risks to traditional seat-based SaaS revenue, which has pressured sentiment and contributed to the year-to-date drawdown. That narrative can keep downside risk elevated until visibility on new pricing models is proven. AI Disruption Fears Pressured Salesforce (CRM) in Q1
• Negative Sentiment: Ongoing negative headlines and YTD weakness: Multiple outlets note CRM’s significant YTD decline and “SaaSpocalypse” commentary; CEO pushback helps sentiment but does not eliminate short-term execution and valuation concerns. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff thinks ‘SaaSpocalypse’ bears are ‘dead wrong’

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $189.91 on Thursday. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average of $187.68 and a 200 day moving average of $222.98. The firm has a market cap of $155.39 billion, a PE ratio of 24.32, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $163.52 and a one year high of $296.05.

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, beating 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 net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business 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 predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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 an increase from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.54%.

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