Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Acquires 1,853,663 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 50.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 5,498,915 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,853,663 shares during the period. Salesforce makes up approximately 0.9% of Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,456,718,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $23,800,353,000 after purchasing an additional 270,913 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% in the fourth 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. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,751,073,000 after purchasing an additional 791,345 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its position in Salesforce by 13.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,672,684 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,211,515,000 after acquiring an additional 2,347,478 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s latest quarter was strong, with revenue of $11.13 billion, EPS of $3.88, and AI/data ARR rising to $3.4 billion; Agentforce alone reached $1.2 billion in ARR, reinforcing the company’s AI growth story and supporting the bullish case. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Erste Group Bank raised its earnings expectations for Salesforce, estimating FY2027 EPS at $10.17 and FY2028 EPS at $11.07, which suggests confidence in longer-term profitability. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is getting renewed attention from market watchers, and several articles highlight that its AI pivot and low valuation could attract investors if execution continues to improve. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce is also being discussed in the context of broader software-sector weakness, with investors favoring AI infrastructure and chip names over traditional subscription software. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce announced another round of layoffs tied to its AI and Marketing Cloud teams, signaling restructuring pressure as it shifts toward AI-focused and usage-based monetization models. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Several reports note that CRM shares are near 52-week lows as investors worry the market is rotating away from legacy software names, keeping pressure on the stock despite solid fundamentals. Article Title

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the director owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Mizuho cut their price objective on Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Truist Financial set a $280.00 price objective on Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday. Finally, KeyCorp cut their price objective on Salesforce from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research 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 issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $259.26.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $166.07 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $161.40 and a twelve month high of $276.80. The firm has a market cap of $136.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.22, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a 50 day moving average of $180.10 and a 200 day moving average of $206.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The company 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.58 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its board 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 reacquire up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

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.