Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Acquires 22,351 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Artisan Partners increased its Salesforce stake by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, buying 22,351 more shares and bringing its total holdings to 610,938 shares valued at about $161.8 million.
• Other hedge funds also raised their positions, and institutional investors now own 80.43% of Salesforce, underscoring continued large-scale interest in the stock.
• Salesforce remains in focus for investors because of its AI strategy, strong earnings, and shareholder returns: it recently beat quarterly EPS estimates, announced a dividend, and has a $25 billion buyback authorization.

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 3.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 610,938 shares of the CRM provider's stock after buying an additional 22,351 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership owned 0.07% of Salesforce worth $161,844,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $8,582,000 after purchasing an additional 3,102 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $611,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $747,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $807,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, United Bank raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,781,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is deepening its push into agentic AI by acquiring Fin, an AI customer-service platform that handles queries across chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS, phone and Slack. Investors are viewing the deal as a strategic step that could strengthen Salesforce’s position in the fast-growing AI automation market. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts at firms including Wedbush, Canaccord Genuity and Needham reaffirmed bullish views, with price targets well above the current share price, suggesting Wall Street sees meaningful upside if Salesforce’s AI strategy gains traction. Benzinga article
• Positive Sentiment: Commentary around Salesforce’s strong cash generation, rising margins and a $50 billion buyback plan is supporting the investment case by highlighting its ability to fund acquisitions while still returning capital to shareholders. Yahoo Finance article
• Neutral Sentiment: Wedbush said the Fin purchase shows Salesforce is moving faster than expected to secure the AI agent market, but investors are still waiting to see whether these acquisitions translate into faster revenue growth and better returns. Proactive Investors article
• Negative Sentiment: Some coverage is focusing on Salesforce’s steep share-price decline over the past year and the concern that its acquisition-heavy strategy has not yet restored investor confidence, keeping pressure on CRM stock. Invezz article

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CRM. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. DA Davidson decreased their target price on Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Macquarie Infrastructure decreased their target price on Salesforce from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group decreased their target price on Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $259.26.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $161.74 on Wednesday. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $160.50 and a fifty-two week high of $276.80. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $179.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $205.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market cap of $132.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.58 EPS. The business'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. On average, analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the transaction, the director directly 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. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 3.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Salesforce 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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