Monarch Capital Management Inc. Grows Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Monarch Capital Management increased its stake in Salesforce by 212.2%, adding 3,732 shares to hold 5,491 shares worth about $1.456 million.
• Salesforce's board authorized a $25 billion share buyback (roughly 14.1% of shares) and raised the quarterly dividend to $0.44, signaling management sees value in the stock.
• The company beat quarterly estimates—EPS of $3.81 vs. $3.05 and revenue of $11.20 billion—but the stock is down sharply year‑to‑date (~35%) and several analysts have cut price targets.

Monarch Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 212.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,491 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,732 shares during the quarter. Monarch Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,456,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Dorato Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions 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 purchased at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction 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 acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,742,271.30. This represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong underlying fundamentals: recent coverage highlights Salesforce's trailing‑12‑month revenue (~$41.5B), solid profitability (77.6% gross margin, ~13.9% profit margin), nearly $15B operating cash flow and $7.8 diluted EPS — all arguments that the company’s core business can justify a higher multiple over time. Salesforce Stock Is Dropping Today: What's Going On?
• Positive Sentiment: Ecosystem wins / product integrations: Redpanda’s new real‑time, bidirectional connectors to Salesforce position CRM more as a central data hub — a feature that can increase platform stickiness and justify long‑term value capture. Salesforce Connectors From Redpanda Put Focus On CRM Valuation Gap
• Neutral Sentiment: Options activity signaling volatility: recent options flow has drawn attention — heightened options interest can presage larger moves (up or down) around earnings, product news or macro catalysts but is not a directional confirmation on its own. Is the Options Market Predicting a Spike in Salesforce Stock?
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation debate / buy/hold view: some analysts note CRM is down sharply YTD (~35%) and argue the pullback plus ongoing AI adoption and improving growth make it a hold at current prices — this frames the decline as a potential buying opportunity for longer‑term investors. Salesforce Plunges 35% YTD: Should You Buy, Sell or Hold the Stock?
• Negative Sentiment: Sector shock from new AI models: reports about Anthropic’s latest model and broader headlines have sparked a selloff across software stocks, pressuring CRM as investors rotate toward AI infrastructure and hardware beneficiaries. Anthropic's Latest AI Model Sends a Shockwave Through Software Stocks
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/strategy commentary: high‑profile commentary (e.g., Jim Cramer) indicates a renewed “buy hardware, sell software” rotation, which can keep downward pressure on valuation multiples for large software vendors like Salesforce. Cramer explains the divergence in tech stocks – and why software may continue to lag
• Negative Sentiment: Stock price technical and momentum concerns: coverage noting three‑year lows and a steep YTD decline highlight momentum weakness that can perpetuate selling until clearer positive catalysts emerge. Salesforce stock just crashed to 3-year lows; Here's why
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive/product signals: items about alternatives (e.g., Slackbot as a CRM interface) and specialized Salesforce‑based solutions could be read as both ecosystem expansion and potential competitive friction for certain use cases. Slack instead of Salesforce: Slackbot becomes CRM interface

Salesforce Stock Down 3.4%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $164.99 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $189.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $226.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $152.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.13, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $163.52 and a 12-month 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.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts' expectations of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous 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. On average, 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 buyback program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. This is an increase from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.54%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price 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. UBS Group lowered their target price on Salesforce from $260.00 to $200.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Wolfe Research restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Roth Mkm lowered their target price on Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $280.21.

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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