Park National Corp OH Acquires 13,920 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Park National Corp OH grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 10.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 143,118 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,920 shares during the quarter. Salesforce comprises 1.2% of Park National Corp OH’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. Park National Corp OH’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $37,913,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Rockland Trust Co. increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 1,145.6% during the 3rd quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 13,066 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,097,000 after purchasing an additional 12,017 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Salesforce by 98.3% in the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 21,455 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,085,000 after buying an additional 10,633 shares during the last quarter. Midwest Trust Co boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 4,233 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake 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 buying an additional 61,270 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. grew its position in Salesforce by 42.2% during the third quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 281,054 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $66,610,000 after acquiring an additional 83,403 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Company insiders (directors) bought shares this week—two disclosures show ~2,570-share purchases at roughly $194.6 each, signaling management confidence and providing a near-term vote of confidence to the market. Insider Buying: Salesforce Director Buys 2,570 Shares of Stock
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is pushing “Agentic AI” initiatives and partnering to embed AI agents into workflows (including collaborations reported with NVIDIA), which investors view as core to reaccelerating bookings and revenue growth over time. This supports the bull case for CRM’s longer-term growth trajectory. Salesforce’s Agentic AI Push: Can It Reaccelerate CRM’s Sales Growth?
• Neutral Sentiment: High-profile endorsements remain in the tape—Jim Cramer previously recommended buying CRM (Feb 2025). Such mentions can influence retail flows but are less likely to move fundamentals. Jim Cramer recommended buying Salesforce (CRM) in February 2025
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts have trimmed price targets after the latest quarter but the consensus remains a “Moderate Buy”—mixed near-term takes create a neutral broker backdrop. Salesforce (CRM) stock overview and analyst notes
• Negative Sentiment: A report flags a very large buyback program (coverage cites a $50B figure) after an EPS beat but softer guidance—some investors worry buybacks are being used to lift EPS rather than being matched by reaccelerating organic growth, weighing on sentiment. A $50 Billion Buyback Is Raising Questions About Salesforce’s Growth Story
• Negative Sentiment: Separately, Salesforce completed a large, debt-funded accelerated share repurchase and issued sizeable senior notes to finance it—this materially changes leverage and capital structure, prompting debate over long-term risk vs. shareholder returns. The Bull Case For Salesforce (CRM) Could Change Following Debt-Funded $25 Billion Buyback And Refinancing Transaction

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Macquarie Infrastructure lifted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Roth Mkm cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $235.00 to $210.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $281.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $280.21.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $194.89 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $205.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $233.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $179.88 billion, a PE ratio of 24.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $174.57 and a one year high of $296.05.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results 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. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.78 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter 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. On average, analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback 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 buy up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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 paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is 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 yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 21.25%.

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.