Catalyst Funds Management Pty Ltd Purchases New Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Catalyst Funds Management Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 4,200 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,113,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX bought a new position in Salesforce during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Dogwood Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Salesforce by 285.7% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

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)

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $375.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Barclays decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 18th. Finally, Northland Securities decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $274.12.

Salesforce Trading Up 2.3%

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $180.32 on Friday. 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 business’s 50 day moving average price is $182.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $212.98. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $163.52 and a fifty-two week 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 1.25 and a beta of 1.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 period in the prior year, the business posted $2.78 earnings per share. The company’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, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm 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 was 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 dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.54%.

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.