Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Sold by National Pension Service

National Pension Service cut its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 5.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,094,148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 113,042 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $554,761,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX acquired a new position in Salesforce during the third quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Dogwood Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Salesforce by 285.7% during the fourth quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 108 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce beat Q1 earnings and revenue estimates, raised full-year profit guidance, and said Agentforce ARR passed $1 billion, reinforcing momentum in its AI strategy.
• Positive Sentiment: The company announced a $25 billion accelerated buyback, which should provide direct support to shareholder returns and may help limit downside.
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts remained constructive, with firms like Wedbush, Piper Sandler, Cantor Fitzgerald, and B. Riley reiterating bullish ratings and high price targets despite trimming estimates.
• Neutral Sentiment: Citigroup and other banks lowered price targets modestly, but most still kept neutral-to-positive views, suggesting the Street is resetting expectations rather than turning outright bearish.
• Negative Sentiment: The stock is being held back by slightly light revenue guidance and continued investor concern that AI competition could pressure Salesforce’s growth profile over time.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on CRM shares. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $194.00 to $173.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. TD Cowen lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Piper Sandler lowered shares of Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $259.47.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $176.30 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $180.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $210.72. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $163.52 and a 12 month high of $276.80. The company has a market capitalization of $144.26 billion, a PE ratio of 20.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 16.70%. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.58 earnings per share. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 9.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 22.54%.

Salesforce announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.