Salesforce Inc. $CRM Shares Acquired by Rakuten Investment Management Inc.

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 625.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 125,456 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 108,166 shares during the quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $33,400,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Daiwa Securities Group dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Truist Financial set a $280.00 price target on Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered their price target on Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $259.26.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, the director directly 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. 3.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $164.45 on Tuesday. 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $161.40 and a 1 year high of $276.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $134.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.03, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.16. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $179.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $206.26.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $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. Equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s $3.6 billion purchase of Fin expands its AI agent and customer-support capabilities, which could strengthen its competitive position and boost future growth. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts said the deal pushes Salesforce further into customer engagement and reinforces its strategy around Agentforce and autonomous tech. Seeking Alpha article
• Positive Sentiment: Market coverage suggested the acquisition helped the stock break a recent losing streak, as investors welcomed a clearer AI growth story. Stocktwits article
• Neutral Sentiment: Some commentary emphasized that Salesforce is still under pressure to prove its AI investments will translate into faster growth and better margins. Seeking Alpha article
• Negative Sentiment: A prior downgrade warned that CRM could face further technical downside if market skepticism persists despite the AI-focused deal. Seeking Alpha article

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.