Mondrian Investment Partners LTD Boosts Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Mondrian Investment Partners increased its Salesforce stake by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, bringing its position to 554,989 shares worth about $147 million. Salesforce remains one of the fund’s larger holdings.
• Salesforce is drawing attention for its AI push, including an expanded collaboration with Cint to deliver AI-powered support through Slack. Several articles also highlighted the stock as an attractive AI/software value play with potential upside.
• Sentiment is mixed heading into earnings: while some analysts see meaningful upside, others remain cautious, with Bank of America maintaining an Underperform rating and UBS pointing to a tough enterprise software spending backdrop.

Mondrian Investment Partners LTD raised its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 554,989 shares of the CRM provider's stock after buying an additional 10,793 shares during the period. Salesforce makes up about 2.3% of Mondrian Investment Partners LTD's holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD owned approximately 0.06% of Salesforce worth $147,022,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rockland Trust Co. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 1,145.6% during the third quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 13,066 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $3,097,000 after purchasing an additional 12,017 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 98.3% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 21,455 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $5,085,000 after purchasing an additional 10,633 shares during the last quarter. Midwest Trust Co lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 2.3% during the third quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 187,071 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $44,336,000 after purchasing an additional 4,233 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 15.1% during the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 467,551 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $113,420,000 after purchasing an additional 61,270 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 42.2% during the third quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 281,054 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $66,610,000 after purchasing an additional 83,403 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced an expanded collaboration with Cint to deliver next-generation AI-powered support through Slack, reinforcing the company’s push into agentic enterprise workflows and AI-driven automation. Cint and Salesforce to Deliver the Next Generation of AI-Powered Support
• Positive Sentiment: Several analyst- and media-driven pieces highlighted Salesforce as an attractive AI and software value play, with commentary pointing to strong upside potential and expectations that Q1 results may benefit from continued digital transformation and generative AI adoption. Salesforce Likely to Beat Q1 Earnings Estimates: Time to Buy the Stock?
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street price-target articles continue to suggest meaningful upside for CRM, with analysts’ average target implying a large gain from current levels and some firms still keeping bullish ratings. Does Salesforce (CRM) Have the Potential to Rally 53.21% as Wall Street Analysts Expect?
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce granted 64,296 RSUs to 27 employees tied to the Cimulate acquisition; this is routine retention-related equity compensation and is not likely to materially move the stock on its own. Salesforce Grants Equity Awards to Cimulate Under Its Inducement Equity Incentive Plan
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also focused on Salesforce’s upcoming earnings release and expected post-earnings volatility, which adds uncertainty but no clear directional catalyst yet. Here's How Much Traders Expect Salesforce Stock Could Move After Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: UBS flagged a mixed enterprise software spending backdrop and said it sees limited signs of near-term acceleration in bookings, which may be weighing on sentiment into earnings. Salesforce faces tough enterprise software backdrop heading into earnings, says UBS
• Negative Sentiment: Bank of America reiterated an Underperform rating with a $160 target, signaling that some analysts remain cautious on the stock despite Salesforce’s strong market position. BofA Maintains Underperform Rating on Salesforce (CRM)

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were bought 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 owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was 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 trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Roth Mkm reduced their price target on shares of Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 23rd. KeyCorp cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, May 18th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $160.00 target price on the stock. Finally, BTIG Research reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $255.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday, April 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $274.12.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $180.32 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $182.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $212.98. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $163.52 and a 52-week high of $280.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $147.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce's revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. This is an increase from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.54%.

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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