Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co Invests $23.41 Million in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co bought a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 149,428 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $23,409,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,548,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Synergy Financial Group LTD raised its stake in Salesforce by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Synergy Financial Group LTD now owns 2,035 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $482,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 35.4% during the 4th quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 199 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Focused Wealth Management Inc lifted its position in Salesforce by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Focused Wealth Management Inc now owns 1,067 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $283,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Krane Funds Advisors LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Krane Funds Advisors LLC now owns 8,254 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,187,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the topic of several research reports. Scotiabank lowered Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Wolfe Research downgraded Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. KeyCorp downgraded Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Salesforce from $187.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating, eighteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $249.87.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Favorable earnings setup: Oppenheimer and other analysts see potential upside from Salesforce’s upcoming results, while market expectations point to a possible post-earnings move toward the stock’s highest level since January. Salesforce Faces Favorable Second-Quarter Setup With Upside Potential How Much Salesforce Stock Is Expected to Move After Earnings
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Guggenheim reaffirmed a Buy rating with a $228 price target, while Cantor Fitzgerald maintained an Overweight rating and set a $250 target. The calls reflect confidence that Salesforce can capture demand for next-generation AI-powered, “agentic” enterprise workflows. Cantor Fitzgerald Salesforce Analyst Comment
• Positive Sentiment: Growth and capital returns: Zacks characterizes Salesforce as a strong growth stock, while a report highlights a record $27 billion quarterly share repurchase program. Buybacks could support earnings per share and signal that management views the shares as undervalued. Why Salesforce Is a Strong Growth Stock Salesforce Record Stock Buybacks
• Neutral Sentiment: Results are the next catalyst: Analysts are focused on revenue, EPS, and operating metrics for the quarter ended July 2026. Salesforce previously reported $11.13 billion of quarterly revenue, up 13.3% year over year, and EPS of $3.88, above consensus. Salesforce Q2 Earnings Estimates
• Neutral Sentiment: AI platform positioning: Coverage comparing Salesforce with ServiceNow suggests investors are rotating toward enterprise application software as AI investment broadens beyond hardware. Salesforce’s Headless 360 strategy and the Agiloft integration on AgentExchange offer additional evidence of ecosystem expansion. Salesforce Versus ServiceNow
• Negative Sentiment: Risks remain: The buybacks were funded partly with $25 billion of new debt, increasing leverage and interest obligations. Separate commentary questions whether Salesforce could become a value trap if growth slows or AI monetization disappoints. Salesforce Value Trap Analysis

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $209.20 on Friday. 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 firm has a market cap of $171.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.16. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $174.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $181.56. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $146.32 and a 1-year high of $269.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.58 EPS. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. 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, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

Salesforce Company 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.