National Pension Service Trims Stock Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• National Pension Service reduced its Salesforce stake by 5.1% in the fourth quarter, selling 113,042 shares and leaving it with about 2.09 million shares worth roughly $554.8 million.
• Salesforce reported better-than-expected Q1 results, with EPS and revenue both topping estimates, and raised its full-year profit guidance as Agentforce ARR surpassed $1 billion, highlighting momentum in its AI push.
• The company also announced a $25 billion stock buyback and a quarterly dividend, while analysts remained generally positive despite some price-target cuts and concerns about softer revenue guidance.

National Pension Service lessened its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 5.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,094,148 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 113,042 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.22% of Salesforce worth $554,761,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce beat Q1 earnings and revenue estimates, raised full-year profit guidance, and said Agentforce ARR passed $1 billion, reinforcing momentum in its AI strategy.
• Positive Sentiment: The company announced a $25 billion accelerated buyback, which should provide direct support to shareholder returns and may help limit downside.
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts remained constructive, with firms like Wedbush, Piper Sandler, Cantor Fitzgerald, and B. Riley reiterating bullish ratings and high price targets despite trimming estimates.
• Neutral Sentiment: Citigroup and other banks lowered price targets modestly, but most still kept neutral-to-positive views, suggesting the Street is resetting expectations rather than turning outright bearish.
• Negative Sentiment: The stock is being held back by slightly light revenue guidance and continued investor concern that AI competition could pressure Salesforce’s growth profile over time.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the transaction, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% 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 company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the subject of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $281.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. DA Davidson dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Truist Financial set a $280.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group restated a "market outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday. One 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 issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $259.47.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.7%

CRM stock opened at $176.30 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $144.26 billion, a PE ratio of 20.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. The firm's fifty day moving average is $180.84 and its 200 day moving average is $210.72. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $163.52 and a one year high of $276.80.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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 net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 16.70%. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.58 earnings per share. The company'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, research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.72 EPS for the current year.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business 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 $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.54%.

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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