Salesforce, Inc. (CRM)

In the past six months, Salesforce's stock experienced fluctuations, with a YTD decline of approximately 20% as of late June 2025 due to concerns over slowing growth and AI competition. Before this, the stock had doubled since early 2023. In the month leading up to mid-May 2025, CRM stock surged by 13.5%. Salesforce reported its Q1 fiscal year 2026 earnings on May 28, 2025, beating estimates with a 7.6% year-over-year revenue increase. In June 2025, Salesforce announced an average 6% price increase across select platforms, effective August 2025.

Demand for Salesforce's products and services exhibits seasonality, influenced by holidays, economic conditions, and market trends. Salesforce provides tools like Einstein Discovery AI to analyze historical data and identify seasonal trends for accurate demand forecasting. Sales planning incorporates seasonal adjustments to quotas, acknowledging the impact of seasonal sales patterns on revenue predictions.

Salesforce, Inc. is a leading cloud computing company known for its CRM platform, founded in 1999. It operates in the Technology Services sector, offering cloud-based solutions for sales, marketing, customer service, and analytics. Key products include Sales Cloud for sales automation, Service Cloud for customer support, Marketing Cloud for marketing automation, Commerce Cloud for e-commerce, Analytics Cloud for business intelligence, and AppCloud for app development. Other products include Community Cloud, SalesforceIQ, Revenue Cloud, Pardot, Experience Cloud, Field Service Lightning, Agentforce, Data Cloud, and Net Zero Cloud, along with industry-specific clouds.

Salesforce has a significant global presence with its headquarters in San Francisco. It has offices across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions, including key locations like New York, London, Tokyo, São Paulo, and Sydney. The United States accounts for over 60% of Salesforce's customers, followed by the United Kingdom and India. Other major geographies include Canada, Australia, France, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Salesforce maintains a strong brand reputation as a leader in the CRM market, consistently ranked as the #1 CRM provider by IDC for 11 to 12 consecutive years. Customer satisfaction surveys indicate high loyalty. However, concerns include the platform's expensiveness, customization difficulties, limited deployment options, and a steep learning curve. There have been discussions about a "bad consultancy problem" and challenges related to data management and security.

Salesforce's ownership is predominantly institutional, with institutional shareholders holding approximately 80.26% to 84% of the stock. The largest institutional owners include Vanguard Group Inc., BlackRock, Inc., and State Street Corp. Marc Benioff, the CEO, is the largest individual shareholder, owning 3.35% of the company's shares. Insiders collectively own about 2.84% of the stock, while retail investors hold between 14.48% and 23.17%.