Geode Capital Management LLC Raises Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Geode Capital Management increased its Salesforce stake by 3.8% in the fourth quarter, ending with 21.8 million shares valued at about $5.75 billion. Institutional investors still own roughly 80.4% of the company.
• Salesforce reported a strong quarter, with EPS of $3.88 and revenue of $11.13 billion, both ahead of expectations. Revenue rose 13.3% year over year, helped by adoption of its AI-powered products.
• The company said Agentforce annualized revenue surpassed $1 billion and raised its full-year profit guidance, while also backing a $25 billion share buyback. Even so, investors remain cautious because revenue guidance was only slightly below expectations and AI competition continues to pressure sentiment.

Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 3.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider's stock after buying an additional 791,345 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC owned approximately 2.32% of Salesforce worth $5,751,073,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $8,582,000 after acquiring an additional 3,102 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $611,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $747,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $807,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Finally, United Bank lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 5.2% in the second quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,781,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on CRM shares. Bank of America started coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Monday, May 18th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $160.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. KeyCorp cut their price target on Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Mizuho cut their price target on Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on Salesforce from $200.00 to $185.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $272.73.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce topped Wall Street expectations for Q1, posting EPS of $3.88 and revenue of $11.13 billion, supported by continued adoption of its AI-powered tools and strong double-digit revenue growth. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: The company said Agentforce annualized revenue passed the $1 billion mark, reinforcing the case that its AI products are becoming a meaningful growth driver. CNBC article
• Positive Sentiment: Management also raised full-year profit guidance and said it will keep investing in strong products and share buybacks, which may help support shareholder returns. CNBC article
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Marc Benioff pushed back on fears that AI rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic will disrupt Salesforce, arguing the company’s software remains central to enterprise customers. CNBC article
• Negative Sentiment: Investors were disappointed that revenue guidance for the year came in only slightly below expectations, while backlog metrics also appeared softer than hoped, tempering enthusiasm around the beat. CNBC article
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce remains weighed down by investor concern that AI could reshape the enterprise software market and pressure long-term growth, keeping the stock volatile despite the quarter’s solid results. Benzinga article

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased 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 directly owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $177.86 on Thursday. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $181.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $211.16. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $163.52 and a 52-week high of $278.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $145.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.77, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.58 earnings per share. Salesforce's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Company 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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