Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 625.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 125,456 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 108,166 shares during the period. Rakuten Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $33,400,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Key Capital Management INC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Legacy Bridge LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on CRM shares. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Citizens Jmp restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven 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 stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $259.26.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE:CRM opened at $164.45 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $179.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $206.26. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $161.40 and a 1-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 firm has a market cap of $134.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The company had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.58 earnings per share. Salesforce’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. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th will be issued 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 20.37%.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was bought at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the acquisition, 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 purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the acquisition, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s $3.6 billion purchase of Fin expands its AI agent and customer-support capabilities, which could strengthen its competitive position and boost future growth. Reuters article
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts said the deal pushes Salesforce further into customer engagement and reinforces its strategy around Agentforce and autonomous tech. Seeking Alpha article
• Positive Sentiment: Market coverage suggested the acquisition helped the stock break a recent losing streak, as investors welcomed a clearer AI growth story. Stocktwits article
• Neutral Sentiment: Some commentary emphasized that Salesforce is still under pressure to prove its AI investments will translate into faster growth and better margins. Seeking Alpha article
• Negative Sentiment: A prior downgrade warned that CRM could face further technical downside if market skepticism persists despite the AI-focused deal. Seeking Alpha 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.