T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. Has $439.57 Million Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• T. Rowe Price Investment Management increased its Salesforce stake by 23.6% in the fourth quarter, ending with 1.66 million shares valued at about $439.6 million.
• Salesforce recently reported better-than-expected quarterly results, with EPS of $3.88 versus $3.13 expected and revenue of $11.13 billion, while also raising guidance for fiscal 2027 and Q2 2027.
• The company is returning capital to shareholders through a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share and a $25 billion share repurchase program, even as analysts remain mixed with an overall Moderate Buy rating.

T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 23.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,659,329 shares of the CRM provider's stock after purchasing an additional 316,446 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. owned 0.18% of Salesforce worth $439,573,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its position in Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,182,951,000. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 159.0% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $4,106,255,000 after purchasing an additional 10,636,161 shares during the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $1,028,807,000 after purchasing an additional 3,504,605 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted 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 during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce Trading Down 2.2%

NYSE CRM opened at $151.67 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market cap of $124.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.55, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.16. The stock's 50-day moving average is $177.91 and its 200-day moving average is $204.72. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $149.80 and a one year high of $276.80.

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 the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company 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. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. Salesforce's payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded Salesforce to buy from neutral and set a $200 price target, citing valuation appeal and potential AI-driven upside. Read More
• Positive Sentiment: Truist reiterated confidence in Salesforce after its $3.6 billion Fin acquisition, viewing the deal as another step in expanding its AI automation and customer-agent capabilities. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple articles highlighted Salesforce as a long-term growth stock, with analysts pointing to its AI platform, Agentforce, and ongoing product expansion as reasons for optimism. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce’s latest AI and acquisition story continues to attract attention, including coverage of the Fin deal and a new partnership announcement, which could support the long-term growth narrative if execution remains strong. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Other commentary remained cautious, with UBS keeping a neutral rating and some analysts cutting fair value estimates amid questions about AI monetization, unit economics, and growth reacceleration. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: A comparison piece against Oracle underscored that Salesforce’s recent earnings and outlook have not been viewed as strongly as some peers, reinforcing investor concern about near-term performance versus other software names. Article Title

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. HC Wainwright downgraded Salesforce to a "negative" rating in a research report on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday. Macquarie Infrastructure dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Northland Securities cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $257.61.

Salesforce Company Profile

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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