Garde Capital Inc. Acquires 9,775 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Garde Capital Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 123.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 17,691 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,775 shares during the period. Garde Capital Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $4,687,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Salesforce by 159.0% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,106,255,000 after purchasing an additional 10,636,161 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter valued at approximately $484,852,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 285.4% in the third quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 2,487,627 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $589,568,000 after acquiring an additional 1,842,117 shares during the period. Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter valued at approximately $431,157,000. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 9.4% in the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,051,119 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,753,519,000 after acquiring an additional 1,729,440 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $259.47.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

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

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce beat Q1 earnings and revenue estimates, raised full-year profit guidance, and said Agentforce ARR passed $1 billion, reinforcing momentum in its AI strategy.
• Positive Sentiment: The company announced a $25 billion accelerated buyback, which should provide direct support to shareholder returns and may help limit downside.
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts remained constructive, with firms like Wedbush, Piper Sandler, Cantor Fitzgerald, and B. Riley reiterating bullish ratings and high price targets despite trimming estimates.
• Neutral Sentiment: Citigroup and other banks lowered price targets modestly, but most still kept neutral-to-positive views, suggesting the Street is resetting expectations rather than turning outright bearish.
• Negative Sentiment: The stock is being held back by slightly light revenue guidance and continued investor concern that AI competition could pressure Salesforce’s growth profile over time.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of CRM opened at $176.30 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $180.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $210.72. The company has a market capitalization of $144.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.14. 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 Inc. has a 1-year low of $163.52 and a 1-year high of $276.80.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 16.70%. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.58 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.54%.

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