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

Mar Vista Investment Partners LLC cut its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 39.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 74,929 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 48,756 shares during the period. Salesforce makes up 1.8% of Mar Vista Investment Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding. Mar Vista Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $19,849,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd lifted its position in Salesforce by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $181,143,000 after acquiring an additional 24,332 shares during the last quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 50.0% during the 3rd quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 116,874 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $27,699,000 after acquiring an additional 38,963 shares during the last quarter. SFE Investment Counsel lifted its position in Salesforce by 82.7% during the 4th quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,608,000 after acquiring an additional 7,871 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Salesforce by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,299,513 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $307,984,000 after acquiring an additional 106,107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,328,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,025,791,000 after acquiring an additional 101,191 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Stock Performance

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

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.58 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly 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. Research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Salesforce from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $281.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $255.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $259.26.

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

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.