CCM Investment Advisers LLC Trims Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

CCM Investment Advisers LLC cut its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 17.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,705 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 3,619 shares during the quarter. CCM Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $4,425,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,660 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,499,000 after purchasing an additional 535 shares during the period. Czech National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 251,028 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $66,500,000 after purchasing an additional 8,224 shares during the period. Client 1ST Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Client 1ST Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,159 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $307,000 after buying an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Foster Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 27.2% during the fourth quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 1,422 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $377,000 after buying an additional 304 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Evanson Asset Management LLC grew its position in Salesforce by 28.0% during the fourth quarter. Evanson Asset Management LLC now owns 1,147 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $304,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.7%

NYSE CRM opened at $181.69 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $200.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $231.70. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a market cap of $167.70 billion, a PE ratio of 23.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $174.57 and a 52 week high of $296.05.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.18 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce’s revenue 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 year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 21.25%.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CRM. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $281.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. BTIG Research reduced their price target on Salesforce from $260.00 to $255.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Arete Research raised Salesforce to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $280.21.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: A large customer rollout: Adecco is deploying Salesforce’s Agentforce 360 and Agentforce Voice across global recruiting operations, a commercial validation of Salesforce’s AI products that supports future ARR growth and upsell potential. Adecco’s Agentforce Rollout Puts Salesforce’s AI Story To The Test
• Positive Sentiment: Product expansion: Salesforce has integrated Agentforce for Small Business into its Suites, broadening the go-to-market footprint for its AI agent products and creating more cross-sell opportunities to smaller customers. Agentforce for Small Business is Now Built Into Salesforce Suites
• Positive Sentiment: Share-buyback support: Reports say Salesforce expanded buybacks after recent share weakness, a shareholder-friendly move that can support EPS and signal management confidence. These 3 Beaten-Down Stocks Just Announced Massive Share Buybacks
• Neutral Sentiment: Acquisition integration: Salesforce granted equity awards to Apromore hires under its inducement plan — routine for M&A hires and neutral for near-term cash flow but useful for integration. Salesforce Grants Equity Awards to Apromore Under Its Inducement Equity Incentive Plan
• Neutral Sentiment: Compensation changes: An internal memo says Salesforce will skip base raises for director-level and above but increase stock/bonus pools for top performers — a cost-managing move that prioritizes variable pay and may help margins but could affect morale. Salesforce isn’t giving raises to director-level and above employees this year, internal memo shows
• Negative Sentiment: AI competition fear: Shares fell after Anthropic unveiled Claude’s ability to control computers (imitate keystrokes/mouse), reviving investor concerns that more capable AI assistants could erode incumbent software moats. Why Salesforce (CRM) Shares Are Getting Obliterated Today
• Negative Sentiment: Revenue miss headlines: Coverage highlighted Salesforce’s first revenue shortfall in years, which amplified the selloff and raised near-term growth concerns despite previous quarterly beats and FY guidance. Salesforce (CRM) Tumbles 6% Following First Revenue Shortfall in Nearly Two Decades
• Negative Sentiment: Sector-wide AI jitters: Broader software selloff (including ServiceNow) on renewed AI disruption fears pressured CRM shares as investors reprice risk across enterprise software. Salesforce and Other Software Stocks Are Plummeting as AI Jitters Return

Insider Activity

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were 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. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale 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.