Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Sold by Manning & Napier Advisors LLC

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC cut its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 98.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 3,780 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 227,634 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,005,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CRM. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $8,582,000 after buying an additional 3,102 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $611,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $747,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Salesforce by 3.7% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $807,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, United Bank grew its position in Salesforce by 5.2% in the second quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,781,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on CRM. TD Cowen reduced their target price on Salesforce from $325.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Salesforce from $197.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. DA Davidson decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $255.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, April 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $279.18.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce launched Agentforce Operations, a new tool designed to automate complex enterprise workflows, and rising adoption of its Agentforce AI platform is helping reinforce the company’s AI growth story. Salesforce AI Shift Agentforce Operations Links Product Adoption To Valuation
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is also bringing Agentforce Sales to ChatGPT, which could expand the reach of its AI-driven CRM tools and support adoption with enterprise customers.
• Positive Sentiment: A new revenue reporting structure beginning in FY27 is intended to align disclosures more closely with Salesforce’s AI-led strategy, potentially making it easier for investors to track how AI products are contributing to growth. Salesforce Inc’s (CRM) New Reporting Structure To Give Better Insights Into AI Driven Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Third-party coverage continues to frame CRM as an AI and big-data beneficiary, with analysts highlighting Salesforce as a play on surging analytics demand and enterprise AI adoption. Top Big Data Stocks Powering the AI Boom as Analytics Demand Surges
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles compare Salesforce with HubSpot and discuss its competitive position in CRM, but these pieces are more strategic than immediately market-moving.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent coverage also raises a leadership succession question around Marc Benioff, which could create some overhang if investors become more focused on long-term governance and continuity risk. Beyond Benioff: Is Salesforce Ready for Life Without Its Founder?
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce has also been reported as falling in recent trading, suggesting investors may still be cautious despite the company’s AI initiatives.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the purchase, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred 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 represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $181.67 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $186.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $218.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $148.65 billion, a PE ratio of 23.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $163.52 and a 52 week high of $296.05.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company 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. On average, research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were given a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 22.54%.

Salesforce announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.