Norges Bank Takes Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 12,015,218 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,182,951,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Eurizon SLJ Capital Ltd bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $504,000. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. bought a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $116,016,000. Fideuram Asset Management Ireland dac bought a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $24,464,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $485,000. Finally, Operose Advisors LLC boosted its position in Salesforce by 561.5% during the fourth quarter. Operose Advisors LLC now owns 635 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $168,000 after purchasing an additional 539 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $300.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Northland Securities lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Truist Financial set a $280.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, B. Riley Financial raised their target price on shares of Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $257.97.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce beat fiscal Q1 expectations, with revenue rising 13% year over year to $11.13 billion and EPS of $3.88 topping estimates, reinforcing that demand remains healthy. CRM Q1 Earnings Top Estimates, Revenues Rise Y/Y on ARR Milestone
• Positive Sentiment: The company said Agentforce annual recurring revenue crossed $1 billion and lifted FY2027 revenue guidance, suggesting its AI products are starting to contribute meaningfully to growth. Salesforce raises FY 2027 revenue guide to $45.9B-$46.2B while launching $25B accelerated share repurchase
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced a $25 billion accelerated share repurchase program and highlighted $6.6 billion in free cash flow, signaling strong cash generation and shareholder returns. Salesforce Announces Quarterly Dividend
• Positive Sentiment: New customer and partner headlines, including CVS Health expanding use of Salesforce’s Agentforce Health, support the view that the company’s AI platform is gaining traction. CVS Health to Deliver Faster, More Personalized Call Center Care for Millions of Members with Salesforce’s Agentforce Health
• Neutral Sentiment: Several analysts remained constructive, but many trimmed price targets after the report, reflecting a more cautious stance on near-term upside. Salesforce Q1 Results ‘Uninspiring’: ‘Nothing To Dispel The AI Threat Narrative’
• Negative Sentiment: Investors were disappointed by Q2 revenue guidance, which came in slightly below expectations, keeping the stock under pressure despite the earnings beat. CRM Stock Dips After-Hours As Q2 Revenue Outlook Marginally Misses Expectations
• Negative Sentiment: Bearish commentary continues to focus on the risk that AI agents could eventually disrupt Salesforce’s core revenue model, which is weighing on sentiment. Analyst warns Salesforce has an AI problem

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $191.00 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $163.52 and a fifty-two week high of $276.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $156.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.11, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.79. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $180.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $210.58.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.58 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

Salesforce declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in 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 typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.