Eminence Capital LP Grows Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Eminence Capital LP increased its Salesforce stake by 25.5% in the fourth quarter, buying 211,985 shares and bringing its total to 1,042,521 shares worth about $276.2 million. Salesforce is now the fund’s 8th-largest holding and makes up about 4.4% of its portfolio.
• Broker sentiment is mixed but still generally positive: Salesforce has a Moderate Buy consensus rating with a $259.26 average target price, though several firms recently trimmed ratings or price targets. UBS and Sanford C. Bernstein were more cautious, while Wedbush and Wall Street Zen remained constructive.
• Salesforce reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $3.88 versus estimates of $3.13 and revenue of $11.13 billion, up 13.3% year over year. The company also highlighted a quarterly dividend and a $25 billion share repurchase authorization, while investors continue to focus on its AI expansion strategy and related execution risks.

Eminence Capital LP boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 25.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,042,521 shares of the CRM provider's stock after buying an additional 211,985 shares during the period. Salesforce makes up about 4.4% of Eminence Capital LP's holdings, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Eminence Capital LP owned 0.11% of Salesforce worth $276,174,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Byrne Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $1,147,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Mathes Company Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Mathes Company Inc. now owns 12,558 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,976,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP now owns 2,774 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $657,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc boosted its stake in Salesforce by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Pine Haven Investment Counsel Inc now owns 3,152 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $835,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CRM. Piper Sandler cut shares of Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $325.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, June 6th. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $259.26.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $154.88 on Thursday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $154.23 and a 1 year high of $276.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $126.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.16. The company's 50-day moving average is $178.54 and its 200 day moving average is $205.28. 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.58 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. 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, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. 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 payout ratio is 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced a $3.6 billion acquisition of Fin, a customer AI agent platform, reinforcing its push into agentic AI and potentially expanding its automation and customer-service capabilities. Salesforce to acquire customer AI agent platform Fin for $3.6B
• Positive Sentiment: Some analysts remain constructive, with reaffirmed Buy ratings and targets well above the current share price, suggesting potential upside if Salesforce’s AI strategy and cash generation continue to improve. Analyst rating updates
• Neutral Sentiment: UBS reiterated a Neutral rating, reflecting a wait-and-see stance as investors assess whether Salesforce can convert its AI investments into faster growth. UBS sticks neutral
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports highlighting strong cash flow, rising margins, and a large buyback plan support the view that Salesforce still has financial flexibility to reward shareholders while investing in growth. CRM's Record Cash Generation Support Robust Shareholder Returns
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple articles raised concerns that Salesforce’s acquisition-heavy strategy may not be translating into sustained growth reacceleration, with some analysts cutting fair value estimates and questioning AI monetization. Salesforce (CRM) Stock Sees Fair Value Cut As Analysts Question AI Growth Path
• Negative Sentiment: Commentary also pointed to “unit economic” concerns and recent share-price weakness, suggesting investors are worried the market is still paying closer attention to execution risk than to the long-term AI opportunity. Salesforce: Putting The Spotlight On The Unit Economic Concerns

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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