Panagora Asset Management Inc. Purchases 126,329 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Panagora Asset Management increased its Salesforce stake by 40.1% in the fourth quarter, buying 126,329 shares and bringing its total holding to 441,184 shares worth about $116.9 million.
• Salesforce’s latest quarter beat expectations, with EPS of $3.88 on $11.13 billion in revenue, while AI/data ARR climbed to $3.4 billion and Agentforce reached $1.2 billion in ARR.
• The company remains a focus for investors despite soft stock performance, with a $25 billion share repurchase program, a 1.1% dividend yield, and analyst sentiment still at a Moderate Buy consensus.

Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 40.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 441,184 shares of the CRM provider's stock after acquiring an additional 126,329 shares during the quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $116,874,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Byrne Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $1,147,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Mathes Company Inc. lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Mathes Company Inc. now owns 12,558 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $2,976,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $3,548,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,372 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $325,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fulcrum Asset Management LLP lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP now owns 2,774 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $657,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s latest quarter was strong, with revenue of $11.13 billion, EPS of $3.88, and AI/data ARR rising to $3.4 billion; Agentforce alone reached $1.2 billion in ARR, reinforcing the company’s AI growth story and supporting the bullish case. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group Bank raised its earnings expectations for Salesforce, estimating FY2027 EPS at $10.17 and FY2028 EPS at $11.07, which suggests confidence in longer-term profitability. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is getting renewed attention from market watchers, and several articles highlight that its AI pivot and low valuation could attract investors if execution continues to improve. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce is also being discussed in the context of broader software-sector weakness, with investors favoring AI infrastructure and chip names over traditional subscription software. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce announced another round of layoffs tied to its AI and Marketing Cloud teams, signaling restructuring pressure as it shifts toward AI-focused and usage-based monetization models. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Several reports note that CRM shares are near 52-week lows as investors worry the market is rotating away from legacy software names, keeping pressure on the stock despite solid fundamentals. Article Title

Salesforce Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE CRM opened at $166.07 on Monday. 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 $136.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.16. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $180.10 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $206.75. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $161.40 and a one year high of $276.80.

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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend 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 presently 20.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler lowered shares of Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $281.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $252.00 to $236.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $259.26.

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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