Here is What Hedge Funds Think About salesforce.com, inc. (CRM)

salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) investors should pay attention to an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds of late.

To the average investor, there are many methods shareholders can use to monitor Mr. Market. A couple of the most under-the-radar are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best money managers can beat the market by a very impressive margin (see just how much).

Just as beneficial, positive insider trading activity is another way to break down the marketplace. As the old adage goes: there are many reasons for an upper level exec to drop shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would buy. Various academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this strategy if investors understand what to do (learn more here).

Now, we’re going to take a look at the recent action regarding salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM).

Hedge fund activity in salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM)

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 42 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 5% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably.

Of the funds we track, Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors had the biggest position in salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM), worth close to $153.4 million, comprising 1.2% of its total 13F portfolio. Sitting at the No. 2 spot is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $108 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedgies that are bullish include Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group, David Stemerman’s Conatus Capital Management and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.

With a general bullishness amongst the heavyweights, key money managers have jumped into salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) headfirst. Citadel Investment Group, managed by Ken Griffin, established the largest position in salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM). Citadel Investment Group had 88 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Thaler’s JAT Capital Management also initiated a $42.3 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new CRM positions are Panayotis Takis Sparaggis’s Alkeon Capital Management, Matthew Tewksbury’s Stevens Capital Management, and Bart Baum’s Ionic Capital Management.

What have insiders been doing with salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM)?

Insider trading activity, especially when it’s bullish, is best served when the company we’re looking at has experienced transactions within the past six months. Over the last 180-day time period, salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) has seen 1 unique insiders purchasing, and 15 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s also review hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM). These stocks are Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY), Catamaran Corp (USA) (NASDAQ:CTRX), CA, Inc. (NASDAQ:CA), Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU), and Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE). All of these stocks are in the application software industry and their market caps are similar to CRM’s market cap.