ProShare Advisors LLC Increases Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• ProShare Advisors LLC increased its Salesforce stake by 9.2% in the fourth quarter, buying 28,746 more shares and bringing its total position to 339,855 shares worth about $90.0 million.
• Other institutions also boosted their holdings, and overall 80.43% of Salesforce stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors, underscoring continued big-investor interest.
• Wall Street remains divided on Salesforce’s outlook amid AI concerns: Bank of America restarted coverage with an Underperform rating and a $160 target, while the broader analyst consensus is still Moderate Buy with an average price target of $274.56.

ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 9.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 339,855 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 28,746 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $90,031,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Rockland Trust Co. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1,145.6% in the 3rd quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 13,066 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $3,097,000 after purchasing an additional 12,017 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 98.3% in the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 21,455 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $5,085,000 after purchasing an additional 10,633 shares during the period. Midwest Trust Co lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 187,071 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $44,336,000 after purchasing an additional 4,233 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 15.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 467,551 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $113,420,000 after purchasing an additional 61,270 shares during the period. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 42.2% in the 3rd quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 281,054 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $66,610,000 after purchasing an additional 83,403 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Enterprise software stocks are rallying broadly as investors rotate back into the group after recent pressure tied to fears that AI agents could disrupt traditional SaaS models. Salesforce is benefiting from that sector-wide rebound. From ServiceNow to Salesforce: why are software stocks rallying today?
• Positive Sentiment: Some commentary still views Salesforce as an attractive blue-chip software holding, citing AI-related growth prospects and a relatively reasonable valuation versus peers like Oracle. Buy 5 Blue-Chip Stocks to Enhance Your Portfolio Returns in 2026
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce’s AI push remains a key debate on Wall Street. Bank of America restarted coverage with an Underperform rating and a $160 price target, warning that AI may pressure Salesforce’s legacy CRM model and make monetization harder. BofA resets Salesforce stock price target with sobering AI verdict
• Neutral Sentiment: Other coverage is also focused on whether Salesforce can prove its AI strategy is working, with investors watching for evidence that Agentforce and related products can offset concerns about slower long-term growth. Software's "Baby with the Bathwater" Moment
• Negative Sentiment: Market commentary also highlights Salesforce’s recent weakness and the argument that AI disruption could keep investors cautious until growth re-accelerates. Is It Time To Reconsider Salesforce (CRM) After This Year’s 32% Share Price Slide?

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the topic of several recent research reports. Northland Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Roth Mkm lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $210.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $274.56.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $179.46 on Wednesday. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $163.52 and a one year high of $288.44. The company's fifty day moving average price is $183.27 and its 200-day moving average price is $214.34. 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 company has a market capitalization of $146.84 billion, a PE ratio of 22.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.78 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue 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. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. This is a boost from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce's payout ratio is presently 22.54%.

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.

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