Strs Ohio Trims Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Strs Ohio lowered its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 6.7% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 362,578 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 25,998 shares during the quarter. Strs Ohio’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $67,682,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its stake in shares of 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 worth $12,552,896,000 after purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,182,951,000. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Salesforce by 159.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,106,255,000 after buying an additional 10,636,161 shares during the period. Cardano Risk Management B.V. raised its position in Salesforce by 924.7% during the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 3,883,610 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,028,807,000 after buying an additional 3,504,605 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its position in Salesforce by 13.3% during the 4th 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. KeyCorp dropped their price objective 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. Northland Securities reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday. They set an “overweight” rating for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price target on shares of Salesforce from $194.00 to $173.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have issued a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $254.42.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Guggenheim upgraded Salesforce to Buy and argued the stock’s recent weakness offers a better buying opportunity, helping fuel a rebound in CRM shares. Salesforce Will Face AI Disruption but Stock Still Gets an Upgrade to Buy
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts highlighted Salesforce’s Data 360 momentum, AI-driven recurring revenue growth, and potential Informatica synergies as reasons fiscal 2027 revenue growth could improve. Can Salesforce’s Data 360 Momentum Drive Stronger FY27 Growth?
• Positive Sentiment: Citizens reiterated a Market Outperform rating after Salesforce’s Fin acquisition and Agentforce expansion, reinforcing the bullish AI/productivity narrative. Citizens Reiterates Market Outperform Rating on Salesforce (CRM) Following Fin Acquisition and Agentforce Expansion
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles noted that Salesforce remains a popular analyst consensus pick, with a “Moderate Buy” view broadly still in place. Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the upgrade-driven bounce, Salesforce has still been hit by heavy recent selling, with coverage noting it fell more than 10% over the past month and lost over 25% in June, underscoring investor concern about the pace of growth. Salesforce (CRM) Down More Than 10% Over the Past Month, Here’s What You Need to Know
• Negative Sentiment: Some commentary suggested AI expectations may be getting ahead of fundamentals, with analysts debating whether Salesforce’s valuation still fully reflects slower near-term growth. Salesforce (CRM) Stock Sees Modest Fair Value Cut As Analysts Debate AI Growth

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $165.94 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $135.90 billion, a PE ratio of 19.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $173.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $197.94. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.32 and a 1 year high of $276.80.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company 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. On average, research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

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

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.