Goldentree Asset Management LP Makes New Investment in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Goldentree Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 168,186 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $39,784,000. Salesforce makes up about 3.3% of Goldentree Asset Management LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX purchased a new position in Salesforce during the third quarter worth $28,000. Country Trust Bank raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 658.8% in the second quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 129 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter worth $39,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Board authorized a $25 billion share repurchase program and initiated an accelerated buyback, signaling management confidence and likely near‑term support for the stock. Stock Buyback Plan Initiated by Salesforce
• Positive Sentiment: Strong product momentum from Agentic AI, Agentforce and Data Cloud is driving higher bookings and revenue growth prospects — a core reason bulls expect reacceleration in CRM’s top line. Salesforce’s Agentic AI Push
• Positive Sentiment: Partnership with NVIDIA to embed AI agents into workflows strengthens Salesforce’s go‑to‑market for AI features and could accelerate adoption across enterprise customers. Salesforce Teams with NVIDIA
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst commentary remains mixed-to-supportive: some firms reiterated buy ratings on the capital allocation strategy, but views differ on risk/reward given the new leverage. Buy Rating on Capital Allocation
• Neutral Sentiment: Third‑party comparisons and coverage pieces (e.g., head‑to‑head with smaller rivals) are airing but aren’t driving material moves relative to the buyback/debt story. Unitronix vs Salesforce Comparison
• Negative Sentiment: The $25 billion accelerated share repurchase and $6 billion term loan are largely debt‑funded (multi‑tranche senior notes and refinancing), materially changing Salesforce’s capital structure and raising concerns about leverage, interest expense and long‑dated maturities. That shift is the main near‑term bearish catalyst. Bull Case Could Change After Debt-Funded Buyback

Salesforce Trading Down 0.4%

CRM stock opened at $194.47 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a market cap of $179.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.90, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.29. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $206.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $233.88. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $174.57 and a 52 week high of $296.05.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 analysts’ expectations of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.78 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, equities research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

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

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders 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 represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.25%.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value 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 represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the sale, the director owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. This represents a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. DA Davidson lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.21.

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.