Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA Acquires Shares of 5,402 Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA acquired a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 5,402 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,280,000.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Salesforce in the second quarter worth $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the third quarter worth $26,000. Country Trust Bank increased its position in Salesforce by 658.8% during the second quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Kilter Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter valued at $42,000. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 40.9% in the second quarter. Capital A Wealth Management LLC now owns 155 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.4%

CRM stock opened at $194.04 on Thursday. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $174.57 and a 12 month high of $296.05. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $213.02 and its 200 day moving average is $235.79. The company has a market capitalization of $179.10 billion, a PE ratio of 24.85, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.29. 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) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.78 EPS. 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 anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This is a positive change from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.54%.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Management continues to highlight strong fiscal performance and AI momentum (record fiscal 2026 results and strategy for 2027), supporting the company’s long‑term growth story. Salesforce (CRM) Presents at Morgan Stanley’s Conference, Here’s What You Need to Know
• Positive Sentiment: New product initiatives aimed at embedding AI across the front office (Agentforce contact center) may expand stickiness and drive future revenue leverage. Salesforce Launches Agentforce Contact Center to Unify AI, Voice and CRM
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce priced an underwritten offering of $25 billion in senior notes (expected to close March 13); proceeds are earmarked to fund share repurchases — a strategic use of capital that boosts buyback flexibility but increases leverage. Salesforce Prices Public Offering of Senior Notes
• Neutral Sentiment: Partner and ISV ecosystem activity (new integrations and Product Intelligence listings on the platform) supports platform adoption but is unlikely to move near‑term results materially. Credibly Streamlines Merchant Application Process, Expands Broker Integration with Cloudsquare
• Negative Sentiment: Market reports say demand for the bond sale was tepid, signaling investor skepticism about taking on big new debt to fund buybacks. Salesforce Sees Tepid Demand for Bond Sale to Fund Share Buyback
• Negative Sentiment: Credit agencies and some analysts flagged higher leverage and changed views after the buyback plan: reports note ratings pressure and commentary that Salesforce is shifting financial policy toward debt‑funded repurchases. Salesforce Weighs Debt Funded Buybacks And Partner Cloud Against Valuation
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts trimmed targets/ratings after Q4 and the capital actions (Northland lowered its target and DA Davidson cut its target/kept Neutral), which can pressure sentiment and reduce near‑term upside. Northland Lowers Price Target on Salesforce DA Davidson Lowers PT on Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) Stock
• Negative Sentiment: Short interest ticked up in February (about a 14.8% increase over mid‑February), a sign some traders are positioned for further near‑term weakness. (Short interest data from recent filings.)

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on CRM. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $375.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Wolfe Research reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Evercore dropped their target price on Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut their target price on Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” 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-seven have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $282.06.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 1,936 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value 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 represents a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.