Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich Lowers Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Bank Julius Baer reduced its Salesforce stake by 6.4% in the fourth quarter, selling 6,141 shares and leaving it with 90,100 shares valued at about $23.9 million.
• Salesforce reported a strong quarter with EPS of $3.81 versus $3.05 expected and revenue of $11.2 billion, while also guiding FY 2027 EPS at 13.11 to 13.19. The company continues to emphasize its AI push, including a $72 million U.S. Air Force deal tied to Agentforce.
• Salesforce’s board approved a $25 billion share buyback, and the company also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.44 per share. Despite several analysts trimming price targets, the stock still carries an overall Moderate Buy rating.

Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich cut its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 6.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 90,100 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 6,141 shares during the period. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich's holdings in Salesforce were worth $23,868,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $23,800,353,000 after acquiring an additional 270,913 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Salesforce by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,420,657 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $11,732,966,000 after purchasing an additional 159,739 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,051,119 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $4,753,519,000 after purchasing an additional 1,729,440 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Salesforce by 159.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $4,106,255,000 after purchasing an additional 10,636,161 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Salesforce by 11.8% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,155,512 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $1,695,856,000 after buying an additional 754,116 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce landed a $72 million U.S. Air Force agreement tied to a broader Department of Defense contract, expanding its Agentforce AI platform into secure government workflows and reinforcing the company’s AI growth narrative. Salesforce’s Air Force Deal Tests Agentforce’s Role In Secure Government AI
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce continues to attract bullish attention as investors focus on its agentic AI strategy and broader growth story across large-cap software. The Zacks Analyst Blog Meta, Pfizer, Salesforce and Smith-Midland
• Neutral Sentiment: BoldSign launched a Salesforce integration on AgentExchange to streamline agreement workflows, highlighting continued partner ecosystem momentum around the CRM platform. BoldSign Launches Salesforce Integration to Streamline Agreement Workflows
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce received a new $188 price target from Citi, down from $200, reflecting softer enterprise software spending trends and a more cautious near-term outlook. Salesforce NYSE: CRM Given New $188.00 Price Target at Citigroup
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce also remained broadly favored by brokerage firms with an overall “Moderate Buy” rating, suggesting Wall Street still sees upside despite the valuation reset. Salesforce Inc. NYSE: CRM Given Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the purchase, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $167.76 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $137.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.48, a PEG ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.14. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $163.52 and a 12 month high of $292.17. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $184.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $215.95.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The business had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This is a positive change from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. Salesforce's payout ratio is presently 22.54%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CRM shares. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $260.00 to $200.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Truist Financial set a $280.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut their price objective on Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $278.82.

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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