Stevens Capital Management LP Invests $4.02 Million in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Stevens Capital Management LP purchased a new stake of 15,185 shares in Salesforce valued at approximately $4.02 million, representing about 1.4% of its portfolio and its 17th-largest holding.
• Salesforce beat Q4 estimates with $3.81 EPS (vs. $3.05 expected) and $11.20B in revenue (up 12.1% year‑over‑year), and issued FY2027 EPS guidance of 13.110–13.190 and Q1 guidance of 3.110–3.130.
• The company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.44 per share and authorized a $25 billion share repurchase program—enough to buy up to 14.1% of outstanding shares.

Stevens Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 15,185 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $4,023,000. Salesforce makes up about 1.4% of Stevens Capital Management LP's investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest holding.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $23,800,353,000 after acquiring an additional 270,913 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Salesforce by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,420,657 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $11,732,966,000 after purchasing an additional 159,739 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in Salesforce by 9.4% during the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,051,119 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $4,753,519,000 after purchasing an additional 1,729,440 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Salesforce by 159.0% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $4,106,255,000 after purchasing an additional 10,636,161 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Salesforce by 11.8% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,155,512 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,695,856,000 after purchasing an additional 754,116 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.8%

Salesforce stock opened at $187.05 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $153.05 billion, a PE ratio of 23.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.14. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $186.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $219.76. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $163.52 and a 52 week 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 released its earnings results 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. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.78 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This is a positive change from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Salesforce's payout ratio is currently 22.54%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share 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 purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Truist Financial set a $280.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price target on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. One 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 issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $279.18.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Launch of Agentforce Operations — Salesforce rolled out Agentforce Operations, a suite of specialized AI agents designed to automate complex, cross-system back‑office workflows. Investors see this as a meaningful productization of AI that could expand higher‑margin services and drive upsell across large enterprise accounts. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Deeper Google Cloud & ChatGPT integrations — New Google Cloud workflow integrations and enhanced ChatGPT-for-CRM capabilities let automated agents operate across multiple enterprise systems and LLMs, which can accelerate real‑world adoption and make Salesforce’s AI story more defensible versus pure-play rivals. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment remains constructive — The average brokerage recommendation sits at “Buy,” and coverage notes the strategic pivot and product launches as catalysts that could justify upside versus current multiples. That endorsement supports near‑term demand for the stock. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation check & comparisons — Several pieces assess CRM’s valuation vs. peers (including a CRM vs. SPOT comparison) and highlight that while upside exists from AI-driven revenue, the stock’s forward multiples require execution to justify a higher valuation. Useful for re‑rating scenarios, but not immediate catalysts. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry context — Coverage noting large tech layoffs and where AI economics live is background risk/benefit context; it matters to margins and adoption timing but is not Salesforce‑specific. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Intensifying competition — Reports emphasize escalating AI‑agent rivalry with Microsoft and ongoing cloud competition with Oracle; larger rivals could pressure win rates, pricing, or margin expansion if deals tilt toward hyperscalers. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Recent price weakness — Commentary notes a sizable YTD share decline (reflecting earnings, macro and re‑rating risk). That keeps investor sensitivity high: strong execution on Agentforce and integrations is required to sustain a re‑rating. Article Title

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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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