General American Investors Co. Inc. Reduces Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• General American Investors Co. Inc. cut its Salesforce stake by 25% in the fourth quarter, selling 10,000 shares and leaving it with 30,000 shares worth about $7.95 million.
• Institutional interest remains high, with hedge funds and other institutional investors owning 80.43% of Salesforce shares; several firms also increased their positions during recent quarters.
• Wall Street remains cautiously bullish on CRM, with a Moderate Buy consensus and an average price target of $259.26, even as some analysts trimmed targets or ratings.

General American Investors Co. Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 25.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,000 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 10,000 shares during the period. General American Investors Co. Inc.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $7,947,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mmbg Investment Advisors CO. boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. Mmbg Investment Advisors CO. now owns 79,627 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $18,905,000 after purchasing an additional 6,045 shares during the last quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 50.0% in the 3rd quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 116,874 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $27,699,000 after purchasing an additional 38,963 shares during the last quarter. SFE Investment Counsel boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 82.7% in the 4th quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $4,608,000 after purchasing an additional 7,871 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,299,513 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $307,984,000 after purchasing an additional 106,107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,328,230 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $1,025,791,000 after purchasing an additional 101,191 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Citizens Jmp reiterated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Salesforce from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $225.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $259.26.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents 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 corporate insiders.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $166.07 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $136.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.22, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $180.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $206.89. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $161.40 and a fifty-two week high of $276.80.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm 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 firm's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company 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. Equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its board has initiated a share buyback 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 purchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Trending Headlines about 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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