Clarkston Capital Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Clarkston Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 10,640 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,986,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Byrne Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Salesforce by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,147,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its position in Salesforce by 0.3% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,548,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. boosted its position in Salesforce by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. now owns 4,239 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,123,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. grew its holdings in Salesforce by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 6,186 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,639,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Shum Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Shum Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,236 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,122,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. B. Riley Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Susquehanna assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. Guggenheim raised shares of Salesforce from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $228.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Finally, Citizens Jmp reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Buy rating, seventeen have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $249.51.

Salesforce Trading Down 3.7%

Shares of CRM opened at $156.97 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $274.00. The company has a market capitalization of $128.56 billion, a PE ratio of 18.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $170.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $187.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion for 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%.The business’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $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. As a group, analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.28 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.37%.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Navatar announced a Claude-native deal engine built on Salesforce Agentforce, highlighting continued enterprise demand for Salesforce’s platform and AI tools. Navatar Launches Claude-Native Deal Engine for Private Equity and M&A Advisory Firms on Salesforce CRM
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce received an “Equal Weight” rating from Morgan Stanley, reinforcing a cautious but not outright bearish stance from one major broker. Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Earns “Equal Weight” Rating from Morgan Stanley
• Neutral Sentiment: Montaka Global Investments described Salesforce as having a compelling outlook, suggesting some long-term investors still see value in the company’s AI and platform strategy. Key Catalysts Behind Salesforce’s (CRM) Compelling Outlook
• Negative Sentiment: Morgan Stanley cut Salesforce’s price target by 35% and downgraded the stock to Equal Weight, signaling reduced upside expectations. Morgan Stanley Slashes Salesforce Price Target By 35%
• Negative Sentiment: Another report said CRM’s recent downgrade reflects a “balanced” risk/reward profile, with analysts seeing no major growth inflection in the near term. CRM Stock Snags Second Rating Downgrade This Month
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce fell more than the broader market as the stock continued to trade under pressure from sentiment around software valuations and AI competition. Here’s Why Salesforce (CRM) Fell More Than Broader Market

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.