State of Wisconsin Investment Board Lowers Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

State of Wisconsin Investment Board decreased its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 5.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 494,369 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 29,028 shares during the quarter. State of Wisconsin Investment Board’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $130,963,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce agreed to buy AI customer-service platform Fin for about $3.6 billion, a move that should strengthen its Agentforce strategy and expand its agentic AI capabilities across chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS and voice channels. Investors see this as a way to deepen Salesforce’s AI offering and potentially improve long-term growth. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts remained constructive after the deal, with firms including Wedbush, Needham and Canaccord reaffirming bullish views and pointing to Salesforce’s cash generation, large buyback capacity and AI monetization potential as support for the investment case. Proactive Investors article
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce’s record cash flow, rising margins and $50 billion buyback plan continue to support shareholder-return arguments, but these positives are being weighed against broader concerns about the pace of growth reacceleration. Yahoo Finance article
• Neutral Sentiment: Some commentary remains mixed, with analysts trimming fair-value estimates and questioning how quickly Salesforce can monetize AI and reaccelerate revenue, which is contributing to cautious sentiment around CRM. Yahoo Finance article
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce’s stock has been pressured by concerns that its acquisition-heavy strategy is not yet restoring growth fast enough, and one report noted the shares have fallen to annual lows amid Wall Street skepticism. Stocktwits article

Salesforce Stock Down 1.7%

Shares of CRM stock opened at $161.74 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $132.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.72, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $160.50 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. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $179.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $205.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The business’s revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company 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. Analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to repurchase up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CRM. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Truist Financial set a $280.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Northland Securities decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $259.26.

Insider Activity

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

About Salesforce

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.