Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Sold by Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG

Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG reduced its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 14.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 209,546 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 36,246 shares during the period. Salesforce comprises 1.1% of Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $55,511,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter worth $26,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter valued at $27,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX purchased a new position in Salesforce in the third quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the third quarter valued at $39,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Company fundamentals and guidance remain supportive: Salesforce recently reported stronger-than-expected quarterly EPS and raised FY‑2027 guidance, underpinning confidence in cash generation and margins. Earnings & guidance
• Positive Sentiment: Accelerated $25B buyback: Analysts expect Salesforce to materially ramp repurchases in FY‑2027; a large, accelerated buyback reduces share count and supports EPS, a clear bullish catalyst. Salesforce asserts growth and cash trajectory with accelerated $25B buyback
• Positive Sentiment: AI product traction: Agentforce showing 169% ARR growth and strong deal flow, while Slack/Slackbot received a major AI feature boost — both support recurring revenue expansion and cross‑sell into Sales/Service clouds. These product wins help justify higher forward multiples. Agentforce AI growth Slack adds 30 AI features
• Positive Sentiment: Bullish analyst and price-target moves: BTIG reaffirmed a Buy and set a $255 target, giving upside from current levels and supporting investor sentiment. BTIG buy rating $255 PT
• Neutral Sentiment: Insiders/whale activity: Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater disclosed a minor reduction in its long-standing CRM stake; the move appears modest and more portfolio rebalancing than a conviction change. Dalio reduces holding
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry integrations: A compliance‑focused messaging partner launched a native integration for Marketing Cloud (helps adoption in regulated verticals but is incremental). Compliance messaging integration
• Negative Sentiment: Bear activity and sector skepticism: A noted short seller highlighted an “AI paradox” trade against Salesforce and other software names, and broader software sell‑offs this year keep downside risk if AI expectations disappoint. These narratives can pressure the stock despite company-level positives. Short seller activity Sector sell-off context

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. TD Cowen cut their price target on Salesforce from $325.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $255.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Stifel Nicolaus cut 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, Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $280.21.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the sale, the director owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 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 price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $186.29 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $196.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $229.51. The company has a market capitalization of $171.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $174.57 and a 1 year high of $296.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The business had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.78 EPS. The business’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, analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. This is an increase 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 is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 21.25%.

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

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.