Independent Advisor Alliance Sells 7,634 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Independent Advisor Alliance cut its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 17.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 35,492 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 7,634 shares during the period. Independent Advisor Alliance’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $9,402,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 159.0% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,106,255,000 after acquiring an additional 10,636,161 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter valued at approximately $484,852,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 285.4% in the third quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 2,487,627 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $589,568,000 after acquiring an additional 1,842,117 shares in the last quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter valued at approximately $431,157,000. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 9.4% in the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,051,119 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,753,519,000 after acquiring an additional 1,729,440 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is generating substantial free cash flow, with fiscal 2026 free cash flow of about $14.4 billion supporting shareholder returns and continued investment in AI products like Agentforce and Data 360. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Several articles point to Salesforce trading at a discounted valuation after a sharp year-to-date slide, which may attract value-focused investors if growth from Agentforce and Data Cloud continues to improve recurring revenue. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Wells Fargo reiterated a Hold rating on Salesforce, suggesting a cautious but not outright negative stance from analysts. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Citigroup lowered its price target on Salesforce to $188 from $200 while keeping a Neutral rating, indicating some valuation caution but still implying modest upside from current levels. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce has been under pressure recently, with the stock lagging the broader market and falling sharply from recent highs, which is weighing on sentiment. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: New research suggesting the Salesforce delivery lifecycle is “broken” could raise concerns about implementation complexity and execution risks for enterprise customers and partners. Article Title

Salesforce Price Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $171.28 on Wednesday. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $163.52 and a one year high of $296.05. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $185.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $217.19. 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 $140.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.93, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.78 earnings per share. 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. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the subject of several research reports. Wolfe Research reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Roth Mkm reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $260.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $250.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 18th. One 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 assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.82.

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.