Guinness Asset Management LTD Raises Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Guinness Asset Management LTD lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 34.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 203,769 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 52,277 shares during the quarter. Salesforce accounts for 0.9% of Guinness Asset Management LTD’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Guinness Asset Management LTD’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $54,249,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Dogwood Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 285.7% in the 4th quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 108 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, the director 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Up 2.3%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $180.32 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $182.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $212.98. 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 Inc. has a one year low of $163.52 and a one year high of $280.74. The company has a market cap of $147.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.09, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.78 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue 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. Analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Salesforce Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on CRM shares. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Wednesday. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Northland Securities cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $274.12.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced an expanded collaboration with Cint to deliver next-generation AI-powered support through Slack, reinforcing the company’s push into agentic enterprise workflows and AI-driven automation. Cint and Salesforce to Deliver the Next Generation of AI-Powered Support
• Positive Sentiment: Several analyst- and media-driven pieces highlighted Salesforce as an attractive AI and software value play, with commentary pointing to strong upside potential and expectations that Q1 results may benefit from continued digital transformation and generative AI adoption. Salesforce Likely to Beat Q1 Earnings Estimates: Time to Buy the Stock?
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street price-target articles continue to suggest meaningful upside for CRM, with analysts’ average target implying a large gain from current levels and some firms still keeping bullish ratings. Does Salesforce (CRM) Have the Potential to Rally 53.21% as Wall Street Analysts Expect?
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce granted 64,296 RSUs to 27 employees tied to the Cimulate acquisition; this is routine retention-related equity compensation and is not likely to materially move the stock on its own. Salesforce Grants Equity Awards to Cimulate Under Its Inducement Equity Incentive Plan
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also focused on Salesforce’s upcoming earnings release and expected post-earnings volatility, which adds uncertainty but no clear directional catalyst yet. Here’s How Much Traders Expect Salesforce Stock Could Move After Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: UBS flagged a mixed enterprise software spending backdrop and said it sees limited signs of near-term acceleration in bookings, which may be weighing on sentiment into earnings. Salesforce faces tough enterprise software backdrop heading into earnings, says UBS
• Negative Sentiment: Bank of America reiterated an Underperform rating with a $160 target, signaling that some analysts remain cautious on the stock despite Salesforce’s strong market position. BofA Maintains Underperform Rating on Salesforce (CRM)

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.