Mar Vista Investment Partners LLC Sells 48,756 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Mar Vista Investment Partners LLC trimmed its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 39.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 74,929 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 48,756 shares during the quarter. Salesforce accounts for approximately 1.8% of Mar Vista Investment Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding. Mar Vista Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $19,849,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. &PARTNERS grew its stake in Salesforce by 73.6% during the fourth quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 145,232 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $38,484,000 after buying an additional 61,589 shares during the last quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH grew its stake in Salesforce by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH now owns 27,821 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $7,398,000 after buying an additional 3,212 shares during the last quarter. Mangrove Partners IM LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $1,101,000. Titan Wealth CI Ltd bought a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $322,000. Finally, Graham Capital Management L.P. grew its stake in Salesforce by 241.4% during the fourth quarter. Graham Capital Management L.P. now owns 83,752 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $22,187,000 after buying an additional 59,220 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction 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 completion of the purchase, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have weighed in on CRM shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $252.00 to $236.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $259.26.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM opened at $161.74 on Wednesday. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $160.50 and a one year high of $276.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $179.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $205.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $132.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.58 earnings per share. Salesforce’s revenue 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. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share 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 purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce is deepening its push into agentic AI by acquiring Fin, an AI customer-service platform that handles queries across chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS, phone and Slack. Investors are viewing the deal as a strategic step that could strengthen Salesforce’s position in the fast-growing AI automation market. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts at firms including Wedbush, Canaccord Genuity and Needham reaffirmed bullish views, with price targets well above the current share price, suggesting Wall Street sees meaningful upside if Salesforce’s AI strategy gains traction. Benzinga article
• Positive Sentiment: Commentary around Salesforce’s strong cash generation, rising margins and a $50 billion buyback plan is supporting the investment case by highlighting its ability to fund acquisitions while still returning capital to shareholders. Yahoo Finance article
• Neutral Sentiment: Wedbush said the Fin purchase shows Salesforce is moving faster than expected to secure the AI agent market, but investors are still waiting to see whether these acquisitions translate into faster revenue growth and better returns. Proactive Investors article
• Negative Sentiment: Some coverage is focusing on Salesforce’s steep share-price decline over the past year and the concern that its acquisition-heavy strategy has not yet restored investor confidence, keeping pressure on CRM stock. Invezz 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.