Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC Raises Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 270,916 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,951 shares during the quarter. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $71,871,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Dorato Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CRM. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price target on Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Roth Mkm reduced 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. Oppenheimer cut their target price on Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 target price (down from $280.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research 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 assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $280.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was acquired 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 approximately $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,742,271.30. This trade represents a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong underlying fundamentals: recent coverage highlights Salesforce’s trailing‑12‑month revenue (~$41.5B), solid profitability (77.6% gross margin, ~13.9% profit margin), nearly $15B operating cash flow and $7.8 diluted EPS — all arguments that the company’s core business can justify a higher multiple over time. Salesforce Stock Is Dropping Today: What’s Going On?
• Positive Sentiment: Ecosystem wins / product integrations: Redpanda’s new real‑time, bidirectional connectors to Salesforce position CRM more as a central data hub — a feature that can increase platform stickiness and justify long‑term value capture. Salesforce Connectors From Redpanda Put Focus On CRM Valuation Gap
• Neutral Sentiment: Options activity signaling volatility: recent options flow has drawn attention — heightened options interest can presage larger moves (up or down) around earnings, product news or macro catalysts but is not a directional confirmation on its own. Is the Options Market Predicting a Spike in Salesforce Stock?
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation debate / buy/hold view: some analysts note CRM is down sharply YTD (~35%) and argue the pullback plus ongoing AI adoption and improving growth make it a hold at current prices — this frames the decline as a potential buying opportunity for longer‑term investors. Salesforce Plunges 35% YTD: Should You Buy, Sell or Hold the Stock?
• Negative Sentiment: Sector shock from new AI models: reports about Anthropic’s latest model and broader headlines have sparked a selloff across software stocks, pressuring CRM as investors rotate toward AI infrastructure and hardware beneficiaries. Anthropic’s Latest AI Model Sends a Shockwave Through Software Stocks
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/strategy commentary: high‑profile commentary (e.g., Jim Cramer) indicates a renewed “buy hardware, sell software” rotation, which can keep downward pressure on valuation multiples for large software vendors like Salesforce. Cramer explains the divergence in tech stocks – and why software may continue to lag
• Negative Sentiment: Stock price technical and momentum concerns: coverage noting three‑year lows and a steep YTD decline highlight momentum weakness that can perpetuate selling until clearer positive catalysts emerge. Salesforce stock just crashed to 3-year lows; Here’s why
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive/product signals: items about alternatives (e.g., Slackbot as a CRM interface) and specialized Salesforce‑based solutions could be read as both ecosystem expansion and potential competitive friction for certain use cases. Slack instead of Salesforce: Slackbot becomes CRM interface

Salesforce Stock Down 3.4%

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $164.99 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $163.52 and a 1 year high of $296.05. The firm has a market cap of $152.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.13, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.29. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $189.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $226.46.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.78 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors 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 yield of 1.1%. This is a positive change from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 22.54%.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are 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.