Baker Avenue Asset Management LP Purchases 9,195 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Baker Avenue Asset Management LP increased its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 14.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 74,613 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,195 shares during the quarter. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $19,766,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Godfrey Financial Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. IFG Advisory LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 25.1% in the fourth quarter. IFG Advisory LLC now owns 2,933 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $777,000 after purchasing an additional 588 shares in the last quarter. IPG Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. IPG Investment Advisors LLC now owns 12,397 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,289,000 after purchasing an additional 416 shares in the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 51,240 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $13,574,000 after purchasing an additional 4,310 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PSI Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $219,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of CRM opened at $177.86 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $145.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.77, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $163.52 and a fifty-two week high of $278.81. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $181.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $211.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the firm’s 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 purchase, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce topped Wall Street expectations for Q1, posting EPS of $3.88 and revenue of $11.13 billion, supported by continued adoption of its AI-powered tools and strong double-digit revenue growth. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: The company said Agentforce annualized revenue passed the $1 billion mark, reinforcing the case that its AI products are becoming a meaningful growth driver. CNBC article
• Positive Sentiment: Management also raised full-year profit guidance and said it will keep investing in strong products and share buybacks, which may help support shareholder returns. CNBC article
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Marc Benioff pushed back on fears that AI rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic will disrupt Salesforce, arguing the company’s software remains central to enterprise customers. CNBC article
• Negative Sentiment: Investors were disappointed that revenue guidance for the year came in only slightly below expectations, while backlog metrics also appeared softer than hoped, tempering enthusiasm around the beat. CNBC article
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce remains weighed down by investor concern that AI could reshape the enterprise software market and pressure long-term growth, keeping the stock volatile despite the quarter’s solid results. Benzinga article

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, May 18th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $160.00 target price on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $272.73.

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.