5 Best Dow Stocks To Buy Right Now

4. Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 117

Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is a global provider of customer relationship management (CRM) technology. Despite recent challenges such as pressure from activist investors, management turnover, and a slowdown in corporate spending, Salesforce beat revenue and earnings estimates in Q4 FY2023, reporting $6.3 billion in free cash flow. Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is focused on operational efficiencies, expanding margins, and returning value to shareholders through a $20 billion stock repurchase program. The company has integrated artificial intelligence into its platform and launched Einstein GPT, the first generative AI CRM technology. Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares have offered investors more than 48% in returns year-to-date.

Citi raised Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM)’s price target to $210 from $182 on March 3, retaining a Neutral rating on the shares. The firm was impressed by the company’s Q4 performance, lifting estimates and turning incrementally positive on the shares. Salesforce is also one of the best Dow stocks to buy right now.

At the end of Q4 2022, 117 hedge funds were long Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) and disclosed positions worth $8.38 billion in the company. Of those, Harris Associates was the leading investor in the company and disclosed a position worth $1.08 billion.

In its investor letter for Q3 2022, Aristotle Atlantic Partners, LLC commented on Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM). Here is what the fund said:

“We sold Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) to reduce our weighting in the Information Technology sector. Salesforce held their investor day, and the company reiterated their organic Fiscal Year 2026 revenue target of $50 billion. This target remains more back-end loaded based on current slowing macroeconomic conditions and requires new annual contract growth well ahead of what the company has been averaging for the past few years. We are skeptical that the company will be able to achieve this revenue target organically and see Merger & Acquisitions (M&A) being key to achieving the growth. While we believe Salesforce has shown good success in growing its non-CRM clouds, we do see more competitive pressures emerging for the Marketing and Customer Service Clouds, specifically on the pricing side during a global economic slowdown.”