Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong Co Ltd Has $7.40 Million Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong cut its Salesforce stake by 20.7% in the fourth quarter, selling 7,307 shares and ending with 27,915 shares valued at about $7.4 million.
• Institutional ownership remains very high, with the article noting that 80.43% of Salesforce shares are held by institutions and hedge funds, and several large investors recently made sizable changes to their positions.
• Salesforce is drawing attention for its AI expansion and shareholder returns, including a planned $3.6 billion Fin acquisition, a $25 billion buyback, and a quarterly dividend, even as some analysts remain cautious about the pace of revenue growth.

Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong Co Ltd lowered its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 20.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 27,915 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 7,307 shares during the quarter. Taikang Asset Management Hong Kong Co Ltd's holdings in Salesforce were worth $7,395,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,182,951,000. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 159.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $4,106,255,000 after buying an additional 10,636,161 shares during the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its stake 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 buying an additional 3,504,605 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce during the third quarter worth approximately $484,852,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

More Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce agreed to buy AI customer-service platform Fin for about $3.6 billion, a move that should strengthen its Agentforce strategy and expand its agentic AI capabilities across chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS and voice channels. Investors see this as a way to deepen Salesforce’s AI offering and potentially improve long-term growth. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts remained constructive after the deal, with firms including Wedbush, Needham and Canaccord reaffirming bullish views and pointing to Salesforce’s cash generation, large buyback capacity and AI monetization potential as support for the investment case. Proactive Investors article
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce’s record cash flow, rising margins and $50 billion buyback plan continue to support shareholder-return arguments, but these positives are being weighed against broader concerns about the pace of growth reacceleration. Yahoo Finance article
• Neutral Sentiment: Some commentary remains mixed, with analysts trimming fair-value estimates and questioning how quickly Salesforce can monetize AI and reaccelerate revenue, which is contributing to cautious sentiment around CRM. Yahoo Finance article
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce’s stock has been pressured by concerns that its acquisition-heavy strategy is not yet restoring growth fast enough, and one report noted the shares have fallen to annual lows amid Wall Street skepticism. Stocktwits article

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $161.74 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $132.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.16. 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 company has a 50 day simple moving average of $179.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $205.79. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $160.50 and a 1 year high of $276.80.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for 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 company's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $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. Research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. Salesforce's payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on CRM. TD Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Friday. Northland Securities reduced their price target on Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Oppenheimer decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $275.00 to $250.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Wedbush restated an "outperform" rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a "market outperform" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $259.26.

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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