Arax Advisory Partners Lowers Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Arax Advisory Partners cut its Salesforce stake by 24.1% in the fourth quarter, selling 3,826 shares and leaving it with 12,056 shares valued at about $3.19 million.
• Wall Street sentiment remains mostly positive: multiple firms kept bullish ratings or raised targets, and Salesforce currently carries a Moderate Buy consensus with a $259.26 average price target.
• Salesforce reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $3.88 beating estimates and revenue of $11.13 billion, and it also announced a $25 billion share repurchase program plus a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share.

Arax Advisory Partners lessened its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 24.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,056 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 3,826 shares during the quarter. Arax Advisory Partners' holdings in Salesforce were worth $3,187,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CRM. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. BTIG Research reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $255.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. HSBC boosted their target price on Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Salesforce from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on Salesforce from $194.00 to $173.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $259.26.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the acquisition, 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the purchase, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This 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 currently owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.1%

CRM opened at $166.07 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The stock's fifty day moving average is $180.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $206.75. The company has a market capitalization of $136.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.22, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $161.40 and a 52 week high of $276.80.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.58 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s latest quarter was strong, with revenue of $11.13 billion, EPS of $3.88, and AI/data ARR rising to $3.4 billion; Agentforce alone reached $1.2 billion in ARR, reinforcing the company’s AI growth story and supporting the bullish case. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group Bank raised its earnings expectations for Salesforce, estimating FY2027 EPS at $10.17 and FY2028 EPS at $11.07, which suggests confidence in longer-term profitability. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is getting renewed attention from market watchers, and several articles highlight that its AI pivot and low valuation could attract investors if execution continues to improve. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce is also being discussed in the context of broader software-sector weakness, with investors favoring AI infrastructure and chip names over traditional subscription software. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce announced another round of layoffs tied to its AI and Marketing Cloud teams, signaling restructuring pressure as it shifts toward AI-focused and usage-based monetization models. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Several reports note that CRM shares are near 52-week lows as investors worry the market is rotating away from legacy software names, keeping pressure on the stock despite solid fundamentals. Article Title

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.

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