Summit Global Investments Acquires New Shares in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Summit Global Investments acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 13,227 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,072,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CRM. Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,548,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. now owns 4,239 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,123,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Wright Investors Service Inc. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 6,186 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,639,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the period. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 745 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $197,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synergy Financial Group LTD raised its holdings in Salesforce by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Synergy Financial Group LTD now owns 2,035 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $482,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Key Salesforce News

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan resumed coverage with an Overweight rating and a $250 price target, citing potential acceleration in Salesforce’s core business during the second half of the year. The target implies more than 24% upside from recent levels. JPMorgan bullish Salesforce coverage
• Positive Sentiment: Monness Crespi & Hardt raised its Salesforce price target to $222 from $200 and maintained a Buy rating. UBS and Wells Fargo also reportedly forecast strong appreciation, reinforcing improving sell-side sentiment. Monness Crespi Salesforce price target
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s Agentforce platform is gaining traction, giving the company a way to use its large CRM customer base to compete with Microsoft and Oracle in enterprise “agentic” AI. Salesforce agentic AI analysis
• Positive Sentiment: A Seeking Alpha analysis argues that Salesforce’s $27.1 billion share-repurchase program, equivalent to an estimated 23% net buyback yield, could support earnings-per-share growth. The stock also appears inexpensive at roughly 14 times forward earnings, although buybacks have increased debt. Salesforce buyback analysis
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce has recently posted strong momentum, with reports noting three consecutive weeks of gains and substantial one-month appreciation. That run may be encouraging investors, but it also raises the possibility of profit-taking.
• Negative Sentiment: Parnassus Investments indicated that Salesforce has lost favor as AI opportunities shift toward competing or substitute technologies. Other commentary likewise warns that alternative software and AI-native tools threaten Salesforce’s traditional CRM franchise. Salesforce AI competition concerns

Salesforce Stock Down 2.7%

Salesforce stock opened at $195.86 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $160.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.67, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $269.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $171.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $182.28.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) 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 prior year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. The company’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. Equities analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on CRM. Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Truist Financial downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. B. Riley Financial increased their price objective on Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $249.05.

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.