Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM – Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 5,919,390 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $927,332,000.
Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at about $11,396,844,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in Salesforce by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,286,909,000 after buying an additional 659,573 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 24,056.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,019,199,000 after acquiring an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,751,073,000 after acquiring an additional 791,345 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
CRM has been the topic of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Salesforce from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Roth Capital reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $325.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Daiwa Securities Group lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $249.87.
Salesforce Price Performance
CRM opened at $209.19 on Tuesday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.32 and a 1 year high of $269.11. 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 company has a market capitalization of $171.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.16. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $175.23 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $181.44.
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.58 earnings per share. The firm’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. As a group, analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Salesforce Dividend Announcement
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.37%.
More Salesforce News
Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:
- Positive Sentiment: BTIG Research reaffirmed its Buy rating and set a $255 price target, implying substantial upside from recent trading levels. The bullish view reflects confidence in Salesforce’s AI opportunity and earnings outlook. Benzinga article
- Positive Sentiment: One analyst argues Salesforce remains undervalued, citing its AI-enabled growth potential, modest valuation and significant share repurchases. The company’s reported $27.5 billion buyback has reduced shares outstanding and could provide support for earnings per share and the stock. Salesforce Forcing Itself Higher Through Massive Buybacks And AI-Led Growth
- Positive Sentiment: Analysts expect AI cloud demand, acquisitions and disciplined spending to support second-quarter results, with revenue growth forecast at approximately 10.6%. Salesforce is also being discussed as a potential beneficiary of broader enterprise AI adoption. Salesforce Set to Report Q2 Earnings
- Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce has rallied toward the $210 area and is testing a resistance zone near its June high. A strong earnings reaction could determine whether the recent advance continues or stalls. Salesforce Stock Hits a Crucial Resistance Ahead of Earnings
- Negative Sentiment: The main risk is that Salesforce’s earnings report fails to demonstrate a meaningful sales-growth reacceleration. Analysts and investors remain cautious about slower software growth, elevated AI expectations and the possibility that the broader AI trade could weaken. Salesforce Earnings Due: Will Sales Growth Reacceleration Hold Up?
Salesforce Company 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.
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