Graham Capital Management L.P. Buys 59,220 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Graham Capital Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 241.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 83,752 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 59,220 shares during the quarter. Salesforce comprises 0.5% of Graham Capital Management L.P.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Graham Capital Management L.P.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $22,187,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CRM. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after buying an additional 3,102 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $611,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $747,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $807,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, United Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,781,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective 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, May 28th. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. 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 issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $259.26.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 3.50% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $161.74 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $179.14 and a 200-day moving average of $205.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $132.47 billion, a PE ratio of 18.72, a PEG ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $160.50 and a 12 month high of $276.80.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its 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. 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.58 EPS. 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, equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be given a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is 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.