Salesforce Inc. $CRM Holdings Trimmed by Candriam S.C.A.

Key Points

• Candriam S.C.A. trimmed its Salesforce stake by 4.4% in the first quarter, selling 27,218 shares and leaving it with 588,368 shares worth about $109.8 million.
• Salesforce reported strong quarterly results, with EPS of $3.88 beating estimates and revenue of $11.13 billion topping forecasts; revenue also rose 13.3% year over year.
• The company is leaning into shareholder returns and AI growth, announcing a $25 billion buyback plan and a $1 billion investment in Switzerland to expand agentic AI adoption.

Candriam S.C.A. reduced its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 4.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 588,368 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 27,218 shares during the period. Candriam S.C.A. owned approximately 0.07% of Salesforce worth $109,831,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its stake in Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $12,552,896,000 after purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,182,951,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its position in Salesforce by 924.7% in the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 3,883,610 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,028,807,000 after buying an additional 3,504,605 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $6,019,199,000 after buying an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.5% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,672,684 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $5,211,515,000 after buying an additional 2,347,478 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced a $1 billion investment in Switzerland over five years to expand adoption of agentic AI, reinforcing its commitment to AI-led growth and potentially strengthening its international enterprise relationships.
• Positive Sentiment: A bullish deep-dive argued Salesforce is trading at a depressed valuation, with strong free-cash-flow generation and a large debt-funded buyback that reduced share count by more than 10%, signaling management confidence in the business.
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce also unveiled MCP-powered capabilities for Slackbot, which could improve product usefulness and customer engagement, but the market may need proof that these features translate into faster growth.
• Neutral Sentiment: Triveni Power Transmission’s partnership with Salesforce for customer engagement in manufacturing adds another example of industry adoption, though the near-term financial impact appears limited.
• Negative Sentiment: KeyBanc’s downgrade and slightly lower earnings forecast added to investor skepticism that Agentforce will become a major growth catalyst soon.
• Negative Sentiment: Several market commentaries highlighted that CRM has been a weak performer over the past year, and the recent pullback suggests investors remain cautious despite its lower valuation.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.5%

CRM opened at $163.34 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $133.77 billion, a PE ratio of 18.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.18. 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 fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $274.00. The business has a 50-day moving average of $171.89 and a 200-day moving average of $194.51.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released 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. 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%. Salesforce's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm 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 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan 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 plans are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's payout ratio is 20.37%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. Weiss Ratings raised Salesforce from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Susquehanna started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set a "neutral" rating on the stock. Finally, Barclays raised Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $254.42.

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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