New York State Teachers Retirement System Has $216.77 Million Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• New York State Teachers Retirement System trimmed its Salesforce stake by 2.6% to 818,278 shares but still holds about $216.77 million (0.09% of the company) per its latest 13F filing.
• Two directors, David Blair Kirk and Laura Alber, each bought roughly 2,570 shares in March at about $194.6 per share—raising their positions by ~23.1% and ~36.9%, respectively—signalling insider confidence.
• Salesforce beat quarterly EPS estimates ($3.81 vs. $3.05) with revenue up 12.1%, raised its quarterly dividend to $0.44 and authorized a $25.00 billion share buyback, while analysts hold a consensus "Moderate Buy" with a $279.18 target.

New York State Teachers Retirement System cut its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 818,278 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 21,829 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.09% of Salesforce worth $216,770,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX acquired a new position in Salesforce in the third quarter valued at about $28,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on CRM shares. BTIG Research reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $255.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, April 17th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $215.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Wolfe Research restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $279.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the purchase, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM traded down $4.49 during trading on Thursday, hitting $176.73. 4,188,003 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 12,902,606. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $163.52 and a twelve month high of $296.05. The company has a market cap of $144.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.60, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $186.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $220.75.

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

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This is a boost from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce's payout ratio is presently 22.54%.

Salesforce announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

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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