AIA Group Ltd Acquires 50,889 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

AIA Group Ltd increased its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 128.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 90,442 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 50,889 shares during the quarter. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $21,435,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Aspire Growth Partners LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 1.2% in the third quarter. Aspire Growth Partners LLC now owns 3,355 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $795,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the period. Abacus Planning Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. now owns 1,420 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $337,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. 17 Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. 17 Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,321 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $633,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Code Waechter LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Code Waechter LLC now owns 871 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $209,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital A Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 40.9% during the 2nd quarter. Capital A Wealth Management LLC now owns 155 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CRM. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Roth Mkm dropped their price target on Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $281.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $280.21.

Salesforce News Summary

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 Stock Performance

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $194.47 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $179.50 billion, a PE ratio of 24.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $174.57 and a 52 week high of $296.05. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $206.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $233.88. 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 announced its 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 company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.78 earnings per share. The firm’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. Equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

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

Salesforce declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

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.