Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Key Points

• Unusually heavy call option buying hit Salesforce, with 98,506 call contracts purchased on Friday, about 21% above its typical volume. That suggests traders were positioning for more upside in CRM.
• Salesforce’s latest quarter beat expectations, reporting $3.88 EPS on $11.13 billion in revenue, while revenue rose 13.3% year over year. Management also highlighted strong AI momentum, including Agentforce annualized revenue above $1 billion.
• The company is also returning capital to shareholders through a $25 billion share buyback and a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share. The dividend implies a 0.9% annual yield.

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors purchased 98,506 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 21% compared to the typical volume of 81,416 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Rockland Trust Co. increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 1,145.6% during the third quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 13,066 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $3,097,000 after buying an additional 12,017 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Salesforce by 98.3% in the third 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 grew its holdings in Salesforce by 2.3% in the third 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 grew its holdings in Salesforce by 15.1% in the third 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. grew its holdings in Salesforce by 42.2% in the third 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. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Trading Up 9.2%

NYSE CRM traded up $16.29 on Friday, reaching $192.46. The company had a trading volume of 10,778,291 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,012,245. The firm has a market cap of $157.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.14. Salesforce has a fifty-two week low of $163.52 and a fifty-two week high of $276.80. The business has a 50 day moving average of $180.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $210.72. 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 (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 16.70% and a net margin of 18.73%.Salesforce's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.58 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Analysts forecast that Salesforce will post 9.72 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is 22.54%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on CRM shares. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, May 18th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $160.00 price target for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $194.00 to $173.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Northland Securities decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $259.47.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce beat Q1 expectations on both earnings and revenue, with EPS of $3.88 versus estimates around $3.13 and revenue of $11.13 billion, up 13% year over year. The company also said Agentforce annualized revenue topped $1 billion, reinforcing the growth narrative around its AI products.
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised FY2027 revenue guidance to $45.9 billion-$46.2 billion and boosted profit outlook, which suggests confidence in the business model and continued AI-driven demand.
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced a $25 billion accelerated share repurchase plan and declared a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, both of which signal strong cash generation and a commitment to returning capital to shareholders. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The company also announced an expanded collaboration with CVS Health using Agentforce Health, highlighting real-world adoption of Salesforce’s AI tools. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce presented at the Jefferies Software, Internet & AI Conference, keeping investor focus on the company’s AI strategy and execution. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Several analysts updated targets after earnings, with many still constructive, but the range of views reflects debate over whether AI agents will accelerate Salesforce’s growth or pressure its core software business.
• Negative Sentiment: Some coverage warned that Salesforce has an “AI problem,” arguing the market remains unconvinced that its AI strategy is enough to offset competitive threats from new AI-native platforms.
• Negative Sentiment: Near-term guidance was a bit softer than the most optimistic expectations, especially for Q2 revenue, which has kept the stock reaction somewhat restrained despite the earnings beat.

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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