Quantitative Investment Management LLC Buys New Shares in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Quantitative Investment Management LLC initiated a new stake in Salesforce in Q3, buying 10,951 shares valued at approximately $2.595 million.
• Salesforce beat expectations with Q results (EPS $3.81 vs. $3.05 estimate; revenue $11.20B, +12.1% YoY) and set FY2027 guidance of $13.11–$13.19 EPS, underpinning positive analyst sentiment.
• The company priced an underwritten offering of up to $25 billion in senior notes to fund buybacks, but the sale saw tepid demand and higher yields, prompting some downgrades and credit concerns.

Quantitative Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 10,951 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $2,595,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Aspire Growth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Aspire Growth Partners LLC now owns 3,355 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $795,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. now owns 1,420 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $337,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. 17 Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.9% during the second quarter. 17 Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,321 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $633,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Code Waechter LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 5.3% during the third quarter. Code Waechter LLC now owns 871 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $209,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 40.9% in the 2nd quarter. Capital A Wealth Management LLC now owns 155 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on CRM shares. Arete Research raised Salesforce to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Wolfe Research reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $282.06.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong recent fundamentals and AI momentum bolster investor confidence—analysts and coverage pieces note Salesforce’s robust fiscal 2026 results and rising AI-driven demand that supported recent gains. CRM Stock Up More Than 5% in a Month: Should You Buy, Sell or Hold?
• Positive Sentiment: Product/GTMS initiatives: Salesforce is pushing contact-center modernization with Agentforce, which could drive upsells in Service Cloud and contact-center spend. Salesforce Aims to End the ‘Frankenstein’ Contact Center With Agentforce
• Positive Sentiment: Partner and integration momentum—third-party vendors (e.g., LivePerson, Cloudsquare integrations) are emphasizing Salesforce as the CRM backbone, which supports platform stickiness and ecosystem revenue. LivePerson Announces Event-driven Orchestration Partnership with Coral Active
• Positive Sentiment: Management outreach to investors: recent presentations at Morgan Stanley highlighted record fiscal 2026 performance and strategic priorities for 2027, helping sentiment. Salesforce (CRM) Presents at Morgan Stanley’s Conference, Here’s What You Need to Know
• Neutral Sentiment: Capital markets execution: Salesforce priced an underwritten offering of senior notes (aggregate $25B) with proceeds earmarked for buybacks—a definitive move but execution/terms will determine impact. Salesforce Prices Public Offering of Senior Notes
• Neutral Sentiment: Longer-term context pieces and competitor comparisons (Oracle, ServiceNow) highlight that Salesforce remains a cloud/AI market leader, but growth comparisons show mixed near-term organic trends. What If You Had Invested $1,000 in Oracle or Salesforce 10 Years Ago?
• Negative Sentiment: Tepid demand and higher yields on the $25B bond package have surfaced—reports show investor hesitation and higher required yields, signalling market concern about the leverage and pricing of debt-funded buybacks. Salesforce Sees Tepid Demand for Bond Sale to Fund Share Buyback
• Negative Sentiment: Credit and analyst pressure: rating agencies reacted to the buyback/debt move and some brokers issued downgrades or pessimistic forecasts—this increases financing costs and adds near-term downside risk. Salesforce Weighs Debt Funded Buybacks And Partner Cloud Against Valuation
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst downgrade and bearish notes have pressured sentiment, with some reports calling for lower near-term price targets. Salesforce NYSE: CRM Stock Price Down 2% on Analyst Downgrade

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 7,299 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,742,271.30. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 1,936 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $258.64 per share, for a total transaction of $500,727.04. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 10,677 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,761,499.28. The trade was a 22.15% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Trading Up 2.3%

NYSE:CRM opened at $198.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $174.57 and a fifty-two week high of $296.05. The stock's 50-day moving average is $211.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $235.53. The stock has a market cap of $183.39 billion, a PE ratio of 25.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion during 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 firm's revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm 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, equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be given a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This is a positive change from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce's payout ratio is currently 21.25%.

Salesforce 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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