Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stake Raised by WINTON GROUP Ltd

Key Points

• WINTON GROUP Ltd increased its Salesforce stake by 190.4% in the second quarter, owning 26,644 shares valued at approximately $4.17 million. Institutional investors collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Salesforce reported quarterly earnings of $5.90 per share, well above the $3.27 consensus estimate, while revenue rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion. Analysts maintain a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating with an average price target of $266.50.
• Salesforce is expanding its AI strategy through the completed Fin acquisition and reported Agentforce annual recurring revenue of $1.5 billion, though potential acquisitions, rising debt and competition from Microsoft and emerging AI-native CRM rivals present execution risks.

WINTON GROUP Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 190.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 26,644 shares of the CRM provider's stock after buying an additional 17,470 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd's holdings in Salesforce were worth $4,174,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13,260.5% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 188,085,056 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $29,465,405,000 after purchasing an additional 186,677,290 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at about $11,396,844,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its position in Salesforce by 13.3% in the 4th 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. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, Director Craig Conway sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.61, for a total value of $1,172,745.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,437 shares in the company, valued at $1,416,936.57. This trade represents a 45.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce completed its acquisition of Fin, formerly Intercom, adding an AI customer-agent platform, more than 30,000 customers and an experienced technical team. The deal strengthens Salesforce’s Agentforce strategy and could support cross-selling across its CRM base. Salesforce Completes Acquisition of Fin
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is reportedly in discussions to acquire Listen Labs, an AI-powered customer research platform, for approximately $2 billion. The technology could provide customer insights and data to improve Salesforce’s enterprise AI products, although the talks are preliminary and unconfirmed. Salesforce has held talks to buy Listen Labs
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce introduced an enterprise AI “harness” designed to coordinate multiple models and agents using shared business data, while its Claude partnership and Agentforce platform reinforce the company’s effort to monetize generative AI. Agentforce annual recurring revenue reportedly reached $1.5 billion, providing evidence of customer adoption. Salesforce’s new Enterprise AI Harness
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce’s recent blowout quarter and roughly 23% monthly rally have improved sentiment, but analysts note that the earnings beat may not yet indicate explosive revenue acceleration. Investors are likely to seek further evidence at Dreamforce and Investor Day next week.
• Negative Sentiment: The potential Listen Labs transaction raises concerns about paying a substantial premium and adding integration or execution risk, particularly as Salesforce already carries more debt despite improved profitability.
• Negative Sentiment: Microsoft is targeting Salesforce customers with an AI-powered Dynamics 365 migration tool, while startup Lightfield raised $47 million to develop an AI-native CRM competitor. These developments highlight growing pressure on Salesforce’s core CRM franchise. Microsoft targets Salesforce customers

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $230.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $266.50.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.3%

NYSE CRM opened at $243.41 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $198.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $186.75. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $146.32 and a 12 month high of $269.11. The company has a market capitalization of $200.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.19, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.20.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.33 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Salesforce's payout ratio is 16.04%.

About Salesforce

Salesforce, Inc is a cloud-based software company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) technology and related enterprise applications. Its platform helps organizations manage sales, customer service, marketing, commerce, data analytics and business operations through subscription-based software and cloud services.

The company's product portfolio includes Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Data Cloud and the Salesforce Platform. Salesforce also offers Slack for workplace collaboration, Tableau for data visualization and analytics, MuleSoft for application integration, and artificial intelligence capabilities, including its Agentforce platform for building and deploying AI agents.

Founded in 1999, Salesforce is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and serves businesses and organizations across a broad range of industries and geographic markets worldwide.

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.