Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Acquired by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 31.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,397,084 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 809,856 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned 0.42% of Salesforce worth $634,134,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $12,552,896,000 after buying an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,182,951,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $2,363,096,000 after buying an additional 7,160,302 shares during the period. Cardano Risk Management B.V. lifted its position in Salesforce by 924.7% during the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 3,883,610 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,028,807,000 after acquiring an additional 3,504,605 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its position in Salesforce by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $6,019,199,000 after acquiring an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on CRM. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Evercore reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. TD Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, June 12th. HC Wainwright lowered shares of Salesforce to a "negative" rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating, sixteen have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $249.51.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations, with adjusted earnings of $3.88 per share versus the $3.13 consensus and revenue of $11.13 billion versus $11.05 billion expected. Revenue increased 13.3% year over year, reinforcing confidence in the company’s execution and AI-related growth strategy. Why Did Salesforce Lead Index Gainers After Its Earnings Move?
• Positive Sentiment: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs awarded Salesforce, through its distribution network, a three-year Agentic Enterprise License Agreement with a potential value of $1.60 billion. The deal could expand use of Missionforce, Agentforce, Slack, MuleSoft, Tableau and Data 360 across a healthcare network serving approximately 17 million veterans, strengthening Salesforce’s government-cloud and AI-agent credentials. Salesforce’s $1.6 Billion VA AI Deal
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce participated in a broader rebound among enterprise-software stocks as investors rotated toward AI beneficiaries. The sector move provided additional momentum for CRM, alongside gains in ServiceNow and Workday. Software Rebounds on AI Rotation
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts maintain a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating, while valuation-focused coverage highlights Salesforce as a potential long-term growth stock based on its recurring-revenue model, profitability and AI initiatives. Salesforce Receives Moderate Buy Rating
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also focused on the quarterly earnings outlook and whether Agentforce and other AI products can translate into accelerating growth. Expectations are elevated ahead of results, making future guidance important for sustaining the rally. Salesforce’s Quarterly Earnings Preview
• Neutral Sentiment: Comparisons with SAP and ServiceNow emphasize Salesforce’s competitive position in agentic AI, but also underscore ongoing investor concerns about intense competition and the pace of monetization. Salesforce vs. ServiceNow

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $173.34 on Tuesday. The stock's 50 day moving average is $169.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $186.68. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $274.00. The company has a market capitalization of $141.96 billion, a PE ratio of 20.06, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.58 EPS. The business's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding CRM? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.