Phoenix Financial Ltd. Has $9.27 Million Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Phoenix Financial Ltd. cut its Salesforce stake by 13.4% in the fourth quarter, but still held 34,929 shares valued at about $9.27 million as of its latest filing.
• Salesforce continues to draw attention for its AI and government-related growth, including a reported $72 million U.S. Air Force agreement tied to its Agentforce platform.
• The stock has mixed signals from Wall Street: analysts still rate it a Moderate Buy overall, though some recent price targets were lowered, including Citi’s cut to $188 from $200.

Phoenix Financial Ltd. decreased its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 13.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 34,929 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 5,422 shares during the period. Phoenix Financial Ltd.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $9,271,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dash Acquisitions Inc. raised its stake in Salesforce by 44.0% during the fourth quarter. Dash Acquisitions Inc. now owns 89,034 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $23,586,000 after acquiring an additional 27,187 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 35,032 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $9,281,000 after purchasing an additional 2,421 shares in the last quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 127.3% in the 4th quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 8,527 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,259,000 after purchasing an additional 4,775 shares during the last quarter. AM Investment Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth about $287,000. Finally, Avantax Planning Partners Inc. increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Avantax Planning Partners Inc. now owns 6,239 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,653,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce landed a $72 million U.S. Air Force agreement tied to a broader Department of Defense contract, expanding its Agentforce AI platform into secure government workflows and reinforcing the company’s AI growth narrative. Salesforce’s Air Force Deal Tests Agentforce’s Role In Secure Government AI
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce continues to attract bullish attention as investors focus on its agentic AI strategy and broader growth story across large-cap software. The Zacks Analyst Blog Meta, Pfizer, Salesforce and Smith-Midland
• Neutral Sentiment: BoldSign launched a Salesforce integration on AgentExchange to streamline agreement workflows, highlighting continued partner ecosystem momentum around the CRM platform. BoldSign Launches Salesforce Integration to Streamline Agreement Workflows
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce received a new $188 price target from Citi, down from $200, reflecting softer enterprise software spending trends and a more cautious near-term outlook. Salesforce NYSE: CRM Given New $188.00 Price Target at Citigroup
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce also remained broadly favored by brokerage firms with an overall “Moderate Buy” rating, suggesting Wall Street still sees upside despite the valuation reset. Salesforce Inc. NYSE: CRM Given Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $167.76 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $137.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.14. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $163.52 and a 1 year high of $292.17. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $184.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $215.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

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

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

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. This is a boost from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.54%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, April 18th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Northland Securities reduced their target price on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Salesforce from $260.00 to $200.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Wolfe Research reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, January 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $278.82.

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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