T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. Increases Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 17.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,687,825 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 252,468 shares during the quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $452,945,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $8,582,000 after buying an additional 3,102 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $611,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at $361,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 36.0% during the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 1,346 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $450,000 after buying an additional 356 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fayez Sarofim & Co grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Fayez Sarofim & Co now owns 2,746 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $918,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $243.00 to $255.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Stephens dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $311.00 to $309.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $370.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Northland Securities decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $423.00 to $396.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $342.89.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.30, for a total value of $585,675.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 11,955,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,112,033,829.80. This represents a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 51,032 shares of company stock valued at $13,171,536 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $245.6070 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $259.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $273.94. The company has a market cap of $234.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.37. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $226.48 and a fifty-two week high of $369.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.07.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 28th. The CRM provider reported $2.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.55 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $9.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.74 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 16.08% and a return on equity of 12.94%. The company’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.44 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2026 guidance at 11.270-11.330 EPS. Q2 2026 guidance at 2.760-2.780 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 18th were given a $0.416 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 18th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 25.98%.

Salesforce Company Profile

Salesforce, Inc provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology that brings companies and customers together worldwide. The company's service includes sales to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, gain insights through analytics and artificial intelligence, and deliver quotes, contracts, and invoices; and service that enables companies to deliver trusted and highly personalized customer support at scale.