Banque Transatlantique SA Reduces Stock Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Banque Transatlantique SA reduced its Salesforce stake by 8.9% in the fourth quarter, selling 5,813 shares and leaving it with 59,398 shares valued at about $15.65 million.
• Institutional ownership remains heavy, with several hedge funds making large moves in CRM and about 80.43% of the stock now held by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
• Salesforce recently beat earnings expectations, posted 13.3% revenue growth, and authorized a $25 billion share buyback; meanwhile, analysts remain mixed, with a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $257.61.

Banque Transatlantique SA cut its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 8.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 59,398 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 5,813 shares during the period. Banque Transatlantique SA's holdings in Salesforce were worth $15,649,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its position in Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $12,552,896,000 after acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,182,951,000. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 159.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $4,106,255,000 after purchasing an additional 10,636,161 shares during the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 924.7% in the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 3,883,610 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,028,807,000 after purchasing an additional 3,504,605 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on CRM. Wolfe Research restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday. Piper Sandler cut shares of Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Northland Securities reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Citizens Jmp restated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $257.61.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded Salesforce to buy from neutral and set a $200 price target, citing valuation appeal and potential AI-driven upside. Read More
• Positive Sentiment: Truist reiterated confidence in Salesforce after its $3.6 billion Fin acquisition, viewing the deal as another step in expanding its AI automation and customer-agent capabilities. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple articles highlighted Salesforce as a long-term growth stock, with analysts pointing to its AI platform, Agentforce, and ongoing product expansion as reasons for optimism. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce’s latest AI and acquisition story continues to attract attention, including coverage of the Fin deal and a new partnership announcement, which could support the long-term growth narrative if execution remains strong. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Other commentary remained cautious, with UBS keeping a neutral rating and some analysts cutting fair value estimates amid questions about AI monetization, unit economics, and growth reacceleration. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: A comparison piece against Oracle underscored that Salesforce’s recent earnings and outlook have not been viewed as strongly as some peers, reinforcing investor concern about near-term performance versus other software names. Article Title

Salesforce Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of CRM opened at $151.67 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $149.80 and a 1-year high of $276.80. The company has a 50-day moving average of $177.91 and a 200 day moving average of $204.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $124.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.55, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

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, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for 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 for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $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. On average, research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current year.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is 20.37%.

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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