Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Buys 5,329 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. raised its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 10.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 56,630 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,329 shares during the quarter. Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $15,002,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rockland Trust Co. raised its holdings in Salesforce by 1,145.6% in the 3rd quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 13,066 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,097,000 after buying an additional 12,017 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Salesforce by 98.3% in the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 21,455 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,085,000 after buying an additional 10,633 shares during the last quarter. Midwest Trust Co raised its holdings in Salesforce by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 187,071 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $44,336,000 after buying an additional 4,233 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in Salesforce by 15.1% in the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 467,551 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $113,420,000 after buying an additional 61,270 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. raised its holdings in Salesforce by 42.2% in the 3rd quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 281,054 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $66,610,000 after buying an additional 83,403 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce launched Agentforce Operations, a new tool designed to automate complex enterprise workflows, and rising adoption of its Agentforce AI platform is helping reinforce the company’s AI growth story. Salesforce AI Shift Agentforce Operations Links Product Adoption To Valuation
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is also bringing Agentforce Sales to ChatGPT, which could expand the reach of its AI-driven CRM tools and support adoption with enterprise customers.
• Positive Sentiment: A new revenue reporting structure beginning in FY27 is intended to align disclosures more closely with Salesforce’s AI-led strategy, potentially making it easier for investors to track how AI products are contributing to growth. Salesforce Inc’s (CRM) New Reporting Structure To Give Better Insights Into AI Driven Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Third-party coverage continues to frame CRM as an AI and big-data beneficiary, with analysts highlighting Salesforce as a play on surging analytics demand and enterprise AI adoption. Top Big Data Stocks Powering the AI Boom as Analytics Demand Surges
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles compare Salesforce with HubSpot and discuss its competitive position in CRM, but these pieces are more strategic than immediately market-moving.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent coverage also raises a leadership succession question around Marc Benioff, which could create some overhang if investors become more focused on long-term governance and continuity risk. Beyond Benioff: Is Salesforce Ready for Life Without Its Founder?
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce has also been reported as falling in recent trading, suggesting investors may still be cautious despite the company’s AI initiatives.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $181.67 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $148.65 billion, a PE ratio of 23.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.14. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $163.52 and a fifty-two week high of $296.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $186.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $218.91.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $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. Research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock 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 buy up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership 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 given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is a positive change from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 22.54%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CRM. Stifel Nicolaus dropped 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. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $197.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Truist Financial set a $280.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $279.18.

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.