State Street Corp Buys 659,573 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 659,573 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp owned about 0.05% of Salesforce worth $13,286,909,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the transaction, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were bought at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $166.07 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $180.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $206.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $161.40 and a one year high of $276.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $136.01 billion, a PE ratio of 19.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. 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, equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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%.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of several analyst reports. DA Davidson cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Oppenheimer cut 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. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 23rd. KeyCorp cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.