Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Has $1.46 Billion Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Arrowstreet Capital boosted its Salesforce stake by 50.9% in the fourth quarter, ending with 5.5 million shares valued at about $1.46 billion. The position now represents roughly 0.9% of the fund’s portfolio.
• Wall Street remains largely constructive on Salesforce, with a Moderate Buy consensus and an average price target of $259.26, though some firms recently trimmed ratings or targets.
• Salesforce reported better-than-expected Q1 results, including EPS of $3.88 and revenue of $11.13 billion, and highlighted continued growth in AI-related ARR. The company also authorized a $25 billion share buyback and pays a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share.

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 50.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,498,915 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,853,663 shares during the quarter. Salesforce comprises about 0.9% of Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership's portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership owned approximately 0.59% of Salesforce worth $1,456,718,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Ally Financial Inc. raised its stake in Salesforce by 18.2% during the 4th quarter. Ally Financial Inc. now owns 32,500 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $8,610,000 after buying an additional 5,000 shares during the period. Altrafin AG acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,545,000. Apriem Advisors raised its stake in Salesforce by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Apriem Advisors now owns 1,965 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $521,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the period. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,280 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,124,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the period. Finally, Jacobi Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 9,142 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,422,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Piper Sandler downgraded Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Macquarie Infrastructure lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $259.26.

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

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $166.07 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $180.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $206.89. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $161.40 and a 1-year high of $276.80. The firm has a market cap of $136.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The company's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.58 earnings per share. 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 anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a stock 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were bought at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 3.50% of the company's stock.

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.

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