CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. Makes New Investment in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. purchased a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 131,895 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $31,259,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX bought a new stake in Salesforce during the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Country Trust Bank boosted its position in Salesforce by 658.8% during the 2nd 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 period. Finally, Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter worth $39,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of CRM stock opened at $194.47 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $206.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $233.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $179.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $174.57 and a fifty-two week high of $296.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.78 EPS. Salesforce’s revenue 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 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is a boost from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.25%.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of Salesforce 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. UBS Group lowered their price target on Salesforce from $260.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Arete Research raised shares of Salesforce to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Truist Financial set a $280.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Evercore dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. One 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $280.21.

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 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.