Empowered Funds LLC Has $31.52 Million Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 19.9% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 168,850 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 27,973 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $31,519,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its stake in Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $12,552,896,000 after purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,182,951,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Salesforce by 130.2% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,363,096,000 after acquiring an additional 7,160,302 shares during the period. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased 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 worth $1,028,807,000 after purchasing an additional 3,504,605 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,019,199,000 after buying an additional 2,669,891 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s latest quarterly results exceeded expectations, with adjusted earnings of $3.88 per share versus the $3.13 consensus and revenue of $11.13 billion versus $11.05 billion expected. Revenue increased 13.3% year over year, reinforcing confidence in the company’s execution and AI-related growth strategy. Why Did Salesforce Lead Index Gainers After Its Earnings Move?
• Positive Sentiment: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs awarded Salesforce, through its distribution network, a three-year Agentic Enterprise License Agreement with a potential value of $1.60 billion. The deal could expand use of Missionforce, Agentforce, Slack, MuleSoft, Tableau and Data 360 across a healthcare network serving approximately 17 million veterans, strengthening Salesforce’s government-cloud and AI-agent credentials. Salesforce’s $1.6 Billion VA AI Deal
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce participated in a broader rebound among enterprise-software stocks as investors rotated toward AI beneficiaries. The sector move provided additional momentum for CRM, alongside gains in ServiceNow and Workday. Software Rebounds on AI Rotation
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts maintain a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating, while valuation-focused coverage highlights Salesforce as a potential long-term growth stock based on its recurring-revenue model, profitability and AI initiatives. Salesforce Receives Moderate Buy Rating
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also focused on the quarterly earnings outlook and whether Agentforce and other AI products can translate into accelerating growth. Expectations are elevated ahead of results, making future guidance important for sustaining the rally. Salesforce’s Quarterly Earnings Preview
• Neutral Sentiment: Comparisons with SAP and ServiceNow emphasize Salesforce’s competitive position in agentic AI, but also underscore ongoing investor concerns about intense competition and the pace of monetization. Salesforce vs. ServiceNow

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $173.34 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $169.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $186.68. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $146.32 and a 1-year high of $274.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $141.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.06, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company 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. Equities analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CRM. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. DA Davidson decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, June 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $249.51.

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.