Banco Santander S.A. Buys 56,696 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Banco Santander S.A. increased its Salesforce stake by 25% in the fourth quarter, buying 56,696 additional shares and bringing its total holding to 283,849 shares worth about $75.2 million.
• Salesforce recently beat earnings expectations, reporting Q1 EPS of $3.88 on revenue of $11.13 billion, with revenue up 13.3% year over year.
• The company also announced shareholder returns and buybacks, including a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share and a $25 billion share repurchase authorization.

Banco Santander S.A. raised its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 25.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 283,849 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 56,696 shares during the period. Salesforce accounts for 0.6% of Banco Santander S.A.'s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Banco Santander S.A.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $75,194,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Byrne Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Salesforce by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $1,147,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Mathes Company Inc. increased its stake in Salesforce by 0.4% in the third quarter. Mathes Company Inc. now owns 12,558 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $2,976,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its stake in Salesforce by 0.3% in the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $3,548,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Salesforce by 3.5% in the third quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,372 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $325,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fulcrum Asset Management LLP increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.7% during the third quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP now owns 2,774 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $657,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of CRM stock opened at $166.07 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $161.40 and a 52-week high of $276.80. 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 50-day simple moving average of $180.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $206.89. The company has a market capitalization of $136.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.22, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business 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 firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal 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 paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. DA Davidson dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $194.00 to $173.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $225.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Wedbush reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $325.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, May 18th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $160.00 price target on the stock. One 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, Salesforce presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $259.26.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was bought at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. The trade was 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 owned by insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

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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