Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Decreases Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC cut its Salesforce stake by 81% in the fourth quarter, selling 604,923 shares and leaving it with 142,282 shares worth about $37.7 million.
• Salesforce’s latest earnings beat expectations, posting $3.88 EPS on $11.13 billion in revenue, while revenue rose 13.3% year over year. The company also gave FY2027 and Q2 2027 guidance above current analyst estimates.
• Investor sentiment remains mixed: Salesforce has a Moderate Buy consensus with a $257.61 price target, but analysts are split on near-term AI monetization and growth reacceleration despite optimism around its AI strategy, acquisition activity, and recent share buyback authorization.

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC decreased its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 81.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 142,282 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 604,923 shares during the quarter. Salesforce comprises about 0.8% of Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest position. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $37,692,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its holdings 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 acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $3,182,951,000. Capital World Investors raised its position 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. raised its position 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 valued at $1,028,807,000 after purchasing an additional 3,504,605 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $151.67 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $149.80 and a fifty-two week high of $276.80. 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 company has a market capitalization of $124.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.55, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.16. The business's 50-day moving average is $177.91 and its two-hundred day moving average is $204.72.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.Salesforce's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.58 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Research analysts predict 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 given 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 dividend yield of 1.2%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Key Headlines 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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, June 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $325.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $257.61.

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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