Principal Securities Inc. Grows Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Principal Securities Inc. boosted its Salesforce stake by 13.2% in the fourth quarter, bringing its holdings to 41,550 shares valued at about $11 million.
• Several other institutional investors also added to or initiated positions, while hedge funds and institutions now own 80.43% of Salesforce’s stock.
• Salesforce insiders were also buyers: directors Laura Alber and David Blair Kirk recently purchased shares, even as the stock trades near its 52-week low and analysts maintain a Moderate Buy consensus with an average target price of $259.26.

Principal Securities Inc. increased its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 13.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 41,550 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 4,858 shares during the quarter. Principal Securities Inc.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $11,007,000 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. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s Agentforce annual recurring revenue has surged to $1.2 billion, up 205% year over year, suggesting its AI push is gaining real traction and could support longer-term growth. Salesforce's AI Business Is Growing More Than 200%, but the Stock Is Near a 52-Week Low. Something Has to Give.
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s acquisition of m3ter should help expand usage-based AI revenue by improving metering and billing for Agentforce and other AI products, which may open new monetization opportunities. Salesforce m3ter Deal Highlights Shift Toward Usage Based AI Revenue
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Salesforce’s stake in Anthropic has risen to about $5 billion highlight its strategic exposure to a leading AI startup and reinforce the company’s commitment to AI investment. Salesforce’s Anthropic Stake Reportedly Reaches $5 Billion as AI Startup Eyes IPO, Bloomberg Reports
• Neutral Sentiment: TitanX expanded its Salesforce integration with automated phone intent scoring and contact enrichment, which is incremental ecosystem news but not likely to move CRM shares by itself. TitanX Expands Salesforce and HubSpot Integrations with Automated Phone Intent™ Scoring and Contact Enrichment
• Negative Sentiment: Several recent articles note that Salesforce stock is still sliding, near a 52-week low, and that investors remain skeptical despite AI growth, reflecting ongoing valuation and execution concerns. Our Salesforce Stock Pick Has Flopped. We're Moving On.
• Negative Sentiment: Broader cloud-stock weakness, highlighted by Oracle’s sharp decline after earnings, is adding sector pressure that can weigh on Salesforce even when company-specific news is positive. Oracle Plunges 10% After Earnings, Salesforce Slips Near 52-Week Lows as Cloud Stocks Slide

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $166.81 on Friday. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $180.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $207.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $163.31 and a 12 month high of $276.80. The company has a market cap of $136.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. The company's revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.37%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on CRM shares. KeyCorp cut their price target on Salesforce from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price target on Salesforce from $194.00 to $173.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Citigroup restated a "market outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $259.26.

About Salesforce

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.