Salesforce Inc. $CRM Stock Holdings Lifted by NZS Capital LLC

NZS Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 25.8% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 80,846 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 16,593 shares during the quarter. NZS Capital LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $19,161,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,572,253 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $21,228,624,000 after purchasing an additional 748,772 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.6% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,260,918 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,452,998,000 after buying an additional 776,300 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.6% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,873,900 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,669,224,000 after acquiring an additional 114,504 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,826,049,000. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 26.2% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 7,755,317 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,087,545,000 after acquiring an additional 1,612,413 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on CRM. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Evercore lowered their price target on Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $325.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 17th. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $283.14.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $196.24 on Wednesday. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $174.57 and a fifty-two week high of $298.08. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $221.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $237.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The firm has a market cap of $183.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.13, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The business had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.78 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. Analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is a positive change from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.25%.

Insider Activity

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 1,936 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $258.64 per share, with a total value of $500,727.04. Following the purchase, the director owned 10,677 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,761,499.28. This trade represents a 22.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total transaction of $929,259.10. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat and AI strategy — Salesforce reported a clear EPS and modest revenue beat and is pushing Agentforce (AI agents) into new verticals (telecom) while announcing partner integrations and a capital-return emphasis; that combination is the main bullish driver today. Salesforce Recasts Growth Story Around AI Agents And Capital Returns
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst pocket lift — Citigroup nudged its price target slightly higher to $200 and kept a neutral view, signaling some analyst support after results. Benzinga
• Positive Sentiment: Partner M&A and ecosystem expansion — Faye’s acquisition of CRM Science (a Salesforce partner) and talk of deeper partner integrations (e.g., GoDaddy with MuleSoft) reinforce go-to-market reach for Agentforce deployments. Faye Acquires CRM Science, Award Winning Salesforce Partner
• Neutral Sentiment: Investor interest / trending coverage — Salesforce has been a top-searched/trending name on Zacks; that attention can boost short-term flows but doesn’t replace fundamental drivers. Here is What to Know Beyond Why Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) is a Trending Stock
• Neutral Sentiment: International revenue focus — Zacks highlights that international growth trends are key for forecasts; investors should watch regional mix as management leverages overseas momentum. Investing in Salesforce (CRM)? Don’t Miss Assessing Its International Revenue Trends
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst reset coverage — Goldman Sachs/Street coverage shows analysts are re-evaluating valuation post-earnings; some resets are informational rather than directional. Goldman Sachs resets price target for this Dow 30 dividend stock
• Negative Sentiment: Piper Sandler trimmed its price target from $280 to $250 (kept Overweight), citing a more cautious view on FY27 revenue growth — a headwind for valuation expectations. Piper Sandler Cuts Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) Price Target to $250 from $280
• Negative Sentiment: Truist sharply reduced its target (from $380 to $280) citing sector valuation compression — a larger negative signal for upside expectations despite a retained Buy. Truist Reduces Target Price on Salesforce (CRM) to $280

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.