Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Purchased by Associated Banc Corp

Associated Banc Corp increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 18.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 212,311 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 32,676 shares during the period. Salesforce accounts for 1.4% of Associated Banc Corp’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Associated Banc Corp’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $56,243,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Aspire Growth Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.2% during the third quarter. Aspire Growth Partners LLC now owns 3,355 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $795,000 after buying an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,147,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Mathes Company Inc. grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.4% during the third quarter. Mathes Company Inc. now owns 12,558 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,976,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,548,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beacon Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.5% during the third quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,372 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $325,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

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)

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Oppenheimer decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Northland Securities reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $274.12.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $180.32 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $163.52 and a fifty-two week high of $280.74. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $182.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $212.98. 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 stock has a market cap of $147.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released 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. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.Salesforce’s revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

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

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

About Salesforce

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.