Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stake Raised by Eminence Capital LP

Eminence Capital LP increased its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 25.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,042,521 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 211,985 shares during the period. Salesforce makes up approximately 4.4% of Eminence Capital LP’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Eminence Capital LP’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $276,174,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd raised its position in Salesforce by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $181,143,000 after acquiring an additional 24,332 shares during the period. SFE Investment Counsel raised its holdings in Salesforce by 82.7% in the 4th quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,608,000 after purchasing an additional 7,871 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Salesforce by 8.9% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,299,513 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $307,984,000 after purchasing an additional 106,107 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 2.4% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,328,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,025,791,000 after buying an additional 101,191 shares during the period. Finally, Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $997,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced a $3.6 billion acquisition of Fin, a customer AI agent platform, reinforcing its push into agentic AI and potentially expanding its automation and customer-service capabilities. Salesforce to acquire customer AI agent platform Fin for $3.6B
• Positive Sentiment: Some analysts remain constructive, with reaffirmed Buy ratings and targets well above the current share price, suggesting potential upside if Salesforce’s AI strategy and cash generation continue to improve. Analyst rating updates
• Neutral Sentiment: UBS reiterated a Neutral rating, reflecting a wait-and-see stance as investors assess whether Salesforce can convert its AI investments into faster growth. UBS sticks neutral
• Neutral Sentiment: Reports highlighting strong cash flow, rising margins, and a large buyback plan support the view that Salesforce still has financial flexibility to reward shareholders while investing in growth. CRM’s Record Cash Generation Support Robust Shareholder Returns
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple articles raised concerns that Salesforce’s acquisition-heavy strategy may not be translating into sustained growth reacceleration, with some analysts cutting fair value estimates and questioning AI monetization. Salesforce (CRM) Stock Sees Fair Value Cut As Analysts Question AI Growth Path
• Negative Sentiment: Commentary also pointed to “unit economic” concerns and recent share-price weakness, suggesting investors are worried the market is still paying closer attention to execution risk than to the long-term AI opportunity. Salesforce: Putting The Spotlight On The Unit Economic Concerns

Salesforce Stock Down 4.2%

Shares of CRM opened at $154.88 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $126.85 billion, a PE ratio of 17.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 1.16. The business has a fifty day moving average of $178.54 and a 200 day moving average of $205.28. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $154.23 and a 52-week high of $276.80. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior 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. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. 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 research note on Thursday, February 26th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $252.00 to $236.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $280.00 target price on Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $259.26.

Salesforce 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.