Nuveen LLC Decreases Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Nuveen LLC cut its Salesforce stake by 18.2% in the fourth quarter, selling 781,992 shares and ending with 3,521,881 shares valued at about $933 million. Despite the reduction, institutional investors still own a large majority of Salesforce shares.
• Salesforce’s latest earnings beat expectations, with quarterly EPS of $3.88 versus the $3.13 consensus and revenue of $11.13 billion, up 13.3% year over year. The company also issued FY 2027 guidance and continues to return capital through a dividend and a $25 billion share buyback authorization.
• AI-related momentum remains a major theme, as reports highlight Agentforce ARR reaching $1.2 billion and rising 205% year over year, along with strategic moves like the m3ter acquisition and a growing stake in Anthropic. Even so, Salesforce stock remains under pressure near its 52-week low amid broader cloud-sector weakness and investor skepticism.

Nuveen LLC lessened its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 18.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,521,881 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 781,992 shares during the quarter. Nuveen LLC owned 0.38% of Salesforce worth $932,981,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Byrne Asset Management LLC increased its position in Salesforce by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,147,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Mathes Company Inc. increased its position in Salesforce by 0.4% during the third quarter. Mathes Company Inc. now owns 12,558 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,976,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its position in Salesforce by 0.3% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $3,548,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. Beacon Capital Management LLC increased its position in Salesforce by 3.5% during the third quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,372 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $325,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Finally, Fulcrum Asset Management LLP increased its position in Salesforce by 1.7% during the third quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP now owns 2,774 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $657,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s Agentforce annual recurring revenue has surged to $1.2 billion, up 205% year over year, suggesting its AI push is gaining real traction and could support longer-term growth. Salesforce's AI Business Is Growing More Than 200%, but the Stock Is Near a 52-Week Low. Something Has to Give.
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s acquisition of m3ter should help expand usage-based AI revenue by improving metering and billing for Agentforce and other AI products, which may open new monetization opportunities. Salesforce m3ter Deal Highlights Shift Toward Usage Based AI Revenue
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Salesforce’s stake in Anthropic has risen to about $5 billion highlight its strategic exposure to a leading AI startup and reinforce the company’s commitment to AI investment. Salesforce’s Anthropic Stake Reportedly Reaches $5 Billion as AI Startup Eyes IPO, Bloomberg Reports
• Neutral Sentiment: TitanX expanded its Salesforce integration with automated phone intent scoring and contact enrichment, which is incremental ecosystem news but not likely to move CRM shares by itself. TitanX Expands Salesforce and HubSpot Integrations with Automated Phone Intent™ Scoring and Contact Enrichment
• Negative Sentiment: Several recent articles note that Salesforce stock is still sliding, near a 52-week low, and that investors remain skeptical despite AI growth, reflecting ongoing valuation and execution concerns. Our Salesforce Stock Pick Has Flopped. We're Moving On.
• Negative Sentiment: Broader cloud-stock weakness, highlighted by Oracle’s sharp decline after earnings, is adding sector pressure that can weigh on Salesforce even when company-specific news is positive. Oracle Plunges 10% After Earnings, Salesforce Slips Near 52-Week Lows as Cloud Stocks Slide

Salesforce Stock Down 2.4%

Salesforce stock opened at $166.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $163.31 and a 1-year high of $276.80. The company has a market cap of $136.61 billion, a PE ratio of 19.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.16. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $180.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $207.18.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous 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, sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Salesforce's payout ratio is 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its board has approved a share buyback program on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on CRM. HSBC lifted their target price on Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Salesforce from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Truist Financial set a $280.00 target price on Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $281.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $259.26.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost 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 in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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. 3.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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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