&PARTNERS Increases Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• &PARTNERS increased its Salesforce stake by 73.6% in the fourth quarter, ending with 145,232 shares valued at about $38.5 million.
• Salesforce reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $3.88 versus $3.13 expected and revenue of $11.13 billion, up 13.3% year over year.
• Wall Street remains broadly positive: the stock has a Moderate Buy consensus rating with an average price target of $259.26, even though Salesforce shares were trading near their 12-month low around $161.74.

&PARTNERS grew its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 73.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 145,232 shares of the CRM provider's stock after acquiring an additional 61,589 shares during the period. &PARTNERS's holdings in Salesforce were worth $38,484,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CRM. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH now owns 27,821 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $7,398,000 after buying an additional 3,212 shares in the last quarter. Mangrove Partners IM LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth $1,101,000. Titan Wealth CI Ltd acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth $322,000. Graham Capital Management L.P. boosted its position in Salesforce by 241.4% in the 4th quarter. Graham Capital Management L.P. now owns 83,752 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $22,187,000 after buying an additional 59,220 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nicholas Wealth LLC. grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 16.9% during the fourth quarter. Nicholas Wealth LLC. now owns 4,706 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $1,247,000 after acquiring an additional 680 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. BTIG Research restated a "buy" rating and set a $255.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Needham & Company LLC restated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, May 18th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $160.00 price objective on the stock. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Salesforce from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. 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 assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $259.26.

Salesforce Stock Down 1.7%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $161.74 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $132.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.72, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $160.50 and a twelve month high of $276.80. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $179.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $205.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The firm's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $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 research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

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

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. Insiders own 3.50% of the company's stock.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is deepening its push into agentic AI by acquiring Fin, an AI customer-service platform that handles queries across chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS, phone and Slack. Investors are viewing the deal as a strategic step that could strengthen Salesforce’s position in the fast-growing AI automation market. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts at firms including Wedbush, Canaccord Genuity and Needham reaffirmed bullish views, with price targets well above the current share price, suggesting Wall Street sees meaningful upside if Salesforce’s AI strategy gains traction. Benzinga article
• Positive Sentiment: Commentary around Salesforce’s strong cash generation, rising margins and a $50 billion buyback plan is supporting the investment case by highlighting its ability to fund acquisitions while still returning capital to shareholders. Yahoo Finance article
• Neutral Sentiment: Wedbush said the Fin purchase shows Salesforce is moving faster than expected to secure the AI agent market, but investors are still waiting to see whether these acquisitions translate into faster revenue growth and better returns. Proactive Investors article
• Negative Sentiment: Some coverage is focusing on Salesforce’s steep share-price decline over the past year and the concern that its acquisition-heavy strategy has not yet restored investor confidence, keeping pressure on CRM stock. Invezz article

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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