First Trust Advisors LP Grows Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Posted by Geri Gentry on Jul 22nd, 2026

First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM – Free Report) by 10.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,712,868 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 358,166 shares during the quarter. Salesforce accounts for approximately 0.5% of First Trust Advisors LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $693,081,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Salesforce by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $23,800,353,000 after buying an additional 270,913 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,286,909,000 after acquiring an additional 659,573 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its stake in Salesforce by 24,056.7% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $12,552,896,000 after purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,751,073,000 after purchasing an additional 791,345 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Down 2.0%

CRM stock opened at $170.37 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $139.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $170.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $189.35. 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 Inc. has a 12 month low of $146.32 and a 12 month high of $274.00.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.58 earnings per share. 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. Sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.37%.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

Positive Sentiment: Some analysts still see Salesforce as attractively valued versus peers, citing faster AI growth and stronger earnings revisions, which supports the case for further upside. Salesforce vs. Adobe: Which Enterprise Software Stock Has the Edge?
Positive Sentiment: Salesforce continues to draw investor attention, and some bullish commentary points to the stock being far below prior levels with meaningful upside if execution improves. Salesforce Cratered 33% in 2026. One Analyst Sees It Exploding Nearly 200%
Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s technology is still being adopted in mission-critical settings, including a broader U.S. Air Force rollout of Missionforce for fleet management. Salesforce (CRM) Lands Broad Air Force Role Managing A Global Military Vehicle Fleet
Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce remains a widely watched stock, but this mainly reflects ongoing investor interest rather than a clear new fundamental catalyst. Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) is Attracting Investor Attention: Here is What You Should Know
Neutral Sentiment: Coverage comparing Salesforce with Adyen and other stocks is mostly informational and does not appear to be a major driver on its own. CRM vs. ADYEY: Which Stock Should Value Investors Buy Now?
Negative Sentiment: Morgan Stanley’s downgrade and sharply reduced price target are the clearest near-term negative catalysts, reinforcing concerns that upside may be more limited than previously expected. Salesforce slides on back of Morgan Stanley downgrade
Negative Sentiment: A report about a company canceling a large Salesforce contract in favor of an AI-built CRM highlights competitive pressure from lower-cost, AI-native alternatives. Curative CEO says company ditched a $600k-a-year Salesforce contract after vibecoding a CRM in 2 months
Negative Sentiment: Fireflies’ new AI Sales Suite adds another AI-driven competitor in sales intelligence and CRM-adjacent software, which could add to long-term competitive concerns for Salesforce. Fireflies launches AI Sales Suite, bringing enterprise sales intelligence to its 20 million users at a fraction of what legacy platforms charge

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on CRM shares. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on Salesforce from $194.00 to $173.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. B. Riley Financial lifted their target price on Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $185.00 target price (down from $287.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $249.51.

Read Our Latest Report on Salesforce

Salesforce Profile

(Free Report)

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.