Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Purchased by Empowered Funds LLC

Key Points

• Empowered Funds LLC increased its Salesforce stake by 19.9% in the first quarter, adding 27,973 shares to hold 168,850 shares valued at approximately $31.5 million. Institutional investors collectively own 80.43% of the company.
• Salesforce reported quarterly adjusted earnings of $3.88 per share and revenue of $11.13 billion, beating analyst estimates, while revenue grew 13.3% year over year. The company also secured a potential $1.6 billion, three-year agreement with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for its AI and enterprise platforms.
• Analysts maintain a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating with an average price target of $249.51, though some firms recently downgraded the stock amid concerns about competition and the pace of AI monetization.

Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 19.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 168,850 shares of the CRM provider's stock after acquiring an additional 27,973 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $31,519,000 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 company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 31.3% during the first quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,397,084 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $634,134,000 after acquiring an additional 809,856 shares during the period. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 350.6% in the 1st quarter. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,681 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $687,000 after purchasing an additional 2,864 shares during the last quarter. Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 1st quarter valued at about $235,000. Delta Global Management LP bought a new position in Salesforce in the 1st quarter worth about $4,688,000. Finally, Everest Financial Group LLC grew its position in Salesforce by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Everest Financial Group LLC now owns 34,532 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $6,442,000 after purchasing an additional 1,282 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Salesforce News

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial downgraded shares of Salesforce from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Citigroup upgraded shares of Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Barclays upgraded shares of Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Susquehanna assumed coverage on Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set a "neutral" rating on the stock. Finally, Scotiabank downgraded Salesforce from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $249.51.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $173.34 on Tuesday. The firm's 50 day moving average is $169.96 and its 200-day moving average is $186.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $141.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.06, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 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 12-month low of $146.32 and a 12-month high of $274.00.

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. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.58 earnings per share. 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 anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were given a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce's payout ratio is 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.

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