Atom Investors LP Has $14.01 Million Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Atom Investors LP increased its Salesforce stake by 75% in the fourth quarter, buying 22,655 additional shares and bringing its total holding to 52,870 shares worth about $14.01 million.
• Salesforce is drawing mixed analyst views, with several firms maintaining bullish ratings and targets above the current price, while others remain bearish; the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a target price of $259.26.
• The company recently beat quarterly expectations, reporting EPS of $3.88 on revenue of $11.13 billion, while also highlighting shareholder returns through a $25 billion buyback plan and a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share.

Atom Investors LP grew its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 75.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 52,870 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 22,655 shares during the quarter. Salesforce makes up 1.1% of Atom Investors LP's portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Atom Investors LP's holdings in Salesforce were worth $14,006,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Trending Headlines about 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 Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on CRM shares. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, May 18th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $160.00 price objective for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $194.00 to $173.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Daiwa Securities Group lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, June 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $259.26.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $161.74 on Wednesday. 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 company has a fifty day moving average of $179.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $205.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $132.47 billion, a PE ratio of 18.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $160.50 and a fifty-two week high of $276.80.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business 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. As a group, research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders 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 is 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 3.50% of the stock is owned by company 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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