Clearbridge Investments LLC Purchases 176,806 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 9.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,045,223 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 176,806 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned approximately 0.22% of Salesforce worth $541,800,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Syon Capital LLC boosted its stake in Salesforce by 33.2% during the fourth quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 11,244 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,979,000 after buying an additional 2,804 shares during the last quarter. ING Groep NV boosted its stake in Salesforce by 26.9% during the fourth quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 736,368 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $195,071,000 after buying an additional 155,931 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Salesforce by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,672,684 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,211,515,000 after buying an additional 2,347,478 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Salesforce by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 9,467,811 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,508,137,000 after buying an additional 226,013 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Sarl boosted its stake in Salesforce by 39.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Sarl now owns 254,184 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $67,336,000 after buying an additional 72,232 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber purchased 2,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were acquired 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 directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Price Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $185.85 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $152.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.51, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $163.52 and a 1 year high of $276.80. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $181.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $208.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.58 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter 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. Equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.3 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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 paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on CRM shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $281.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $250.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $257.97.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced a landmark partnership with FIFA for the 2026 World Cup and 2027 Women’s World Cup, which could showcase its AI-driven Agentforce 360 platform to a massive global audience and potentially drive future enterprise demand. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: KeyCorp kept an Overweight rating and a $290 price target on Salesforce, while modeling earnings above consensus for FY2027, signaling continued analyst confidence in the company’s profit growth. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary highlights Salesforce’s strong momentum, helped by its AI strategy, Agentforce rollout, recurring revenue base, and expanding free cash flow, which may keep long-term investors interested. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce’s presentation at the Evercore Global TMT Conference and valuation-focused coverage suggest investors are still reassessing how much of the AI and Agentforce optimism is already priced in. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Bridgewater Associates reportedly sold Salesforce, which can pressure sentiment in the near term, although the article argues that institutional selling may create a better entry point for patient investors. Article Title

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.