Teacher Retirement System of Texas Acquires 2,716 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 296,956 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,716 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Salesforce were worth $78,667,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Marquette Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Finally, Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $189.91 on Thursday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $163.52 and a 1-year high of $296.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $187.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $222.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $155.39 billion, a PE ratio of 24.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business 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. The firm’s revenue 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, research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. This is a positive change from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 22.54%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $255.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, April 17th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Truist Financial set a $280.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, December 29th. One equities research 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 company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $279.18.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Expanded Google Cloud partnership — Salesforce and Google Cloud announced integrations allowing AI agents to execute end-to-end workflows across both platforms, which can reduce data fragmentation for customers and broaden enterprise adoption of Salesforce AI offerings. Salesforce and Google Cloud Enable AI Agents
• Positive Sentiment: Strong AI revenue traction — A Seeking Alpha piece highlights Agentforce ARR hitting ~$800M with 169% y/y growth and rising agentic actions, suggesting the transition to usage-based AI pricing is generating meaningful upside to growth and could offset seat-based pressure. Salesforce: AI Is A True Acceleration Driver
• Positive Sentiment: Product execution on enterprise AI — Salesforce upgraded Agent Fabric with a centralized control plane, discovery of external models, workflow mapping and governance features that make it easier for large customers to manage multi-vendor AI deployments. This improves enterprise defensibility. Salesforce Pushes Deeper Into Enterprise AI Control
• Positive Sentiment: Momentum and analyst support — Coverage noting Salesforce as a strong momentum/large-cap buy and a Truist Securities reiteration of Buy with a $280 target provide buy-side validation that the company’s AI roadmap and developer ecosystem are persuasive to some wall street analysts. Is Salesforce One of the Best Large Cap Stocks
• Positive Sentiment: Notable investor interest — Reports that Michael Burry is building positions in software names, including Salesforce, can attract attention from value-oriented and event-driven market participants. Michael Burry plans to buy Salesforce
• Neutral Sentiment: Comparisons to peers — Several articles compare Salesforce to competitors like Adobe and Oracle; some analyses favor Adobe on near-term AI growth and valuation, which frames relative positioning but doesn’t change Salesforce’s standalone fundamentals. Salesforce vs. Adobe
• Negative Sentiment: Piper Sandler trims price target — Piper Sandler cut its CRM price target from $250 to $215 while keeping an Overweight rating; the reduction signals caution about competitive/AI risks and may cap near-term upside even if the long-term thesis remains positive. Piper Sandler PT Reduced
• Negative Sentiment: AI disruption concerns among investors — Notes from investors/letters (e.g., Vulcan Value) highlight fears that AI could disrupt Salesforce’s traditional seat-based revenue model or intensify competition, a narrative that can pressure sentiment until usage-based revenue proves durable. AI Disruption Fears

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.