Karras Company Inc. Invests $1.92 Million in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Karras Company Inc. bought a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 7,256 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,922,000. Salesforce comprises about 1.8% of Karras Company Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Advisory Alpha LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 4,036 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,070,000 after buying an additional 206 shares during the last quarter. Evoke Wealth LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 22.3% in the 4th quarter. Evoke Wealth LLC now owns 7,611 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,019,000 after buying an additional 1,387 shares during the last quarter. SGL Investment Advisors Inc. raised its position in Salesforce by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. SGL Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,872 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $761,000 after buying an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC now owns 1,275 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $338,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Keudell Morrison Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,736,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Up 2.3%

CRM stock opened at $180.32 on Friday. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $182.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $212.98. The company has a market cap of $147.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.14. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $163.52 and a twelve month high of $280.74.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.78 EPS. The firm’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. Analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.54%.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the purchase, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced an expanded collaboration with Cint to deliver next-generation AI-powered support through Slack, reinforcing the company’s push into agentic enterprise workflows and AI-driven automation. Cint and Salesforce to Deliver the Next Generation of AI-Powered Support
• Positive Sentiment: Several analyst- and media-driven pieces highlighted Salesforce as an attractive AI and software value play, with commentary pointing to strong upside potential and expectations that Q1 results may benefit from continued digital transformation and generative AI adoption. Salesforce Likely to Beat Q1 Earnings Estimates: Time to Buy the Stock?
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street price-target articles continue to suggest meaningful upside for CRM, with analysts’ average target implying a large gain from current levels and some firms still keeping bullish ratings. Does Salesforce (CRM) Have the Potential to Rally 53.21% as Wall Street Analysts Expect?
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce granted 64,296 RSUs to 27 employees tied to the Cimulate acquisition; this is routine retention-related equity compensation and is not likely to materially move the stock on its own. Salesforce Grants Equity Awards to Cimulate Under Its Inducement Equity Incentive Plan
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also focused on Salesforce’s upcoming earnings release and expected post-earnings volatility, which adds uncertainty but no clear directional catalyst yet. Here’s How Much Traders Expect Salesforce Stock Could Move After Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: UBS flagged a mixed enterprise software spending backdrop and said it sees limited signs of near-term acceleration in bookings, which may be weighing on sentiment into earnings. Salesforce faces tough enterprise software backdrop heading into earnings, says UBS
• Negative Sentiment: Bank of America reiterated an Underperform rating with a $160 target, signaling that some analysts remain cautious on the stock despite Salesforce’s strong market position. BofA Maintains Underperform Rating on Salesforce (CRM)

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $375.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Salesforce from $250.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. DA Davidson dropped their target price on Salesforce from $235.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $274.12.

Salesforce Company 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.