5,920 Shares in Salesforce Inc. $CRM Bought by Bridgewater Advisors Inc.

Key Points

• Bridgewater Advisors acquired 5,920 Salesforce shares worth approximately $1.1 million during the second quarter. Institutional investors collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive, with Salesforce holding a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating and an average price target of $249.05, despite some recent downgrades and concerns about AI competition.
• Salesforce exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $3.88 in earnings per share and $11.13 billion in revenue, while its Agentforce AI platform and $27.1 billion share-repurchase program are viewed as potential growth and shareholder-return catalysts.

Bridgewater Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 5,920 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,101,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd grew its stake in Salesforce by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $181,143,000 after buying an additional 24,332 shares during the last quarter. SFE Investment Counsel raised its stake in Salesforce by 82.7% in the fourth quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $4,608,000 after buying an additional 7,871 shares during the last quarter. Fluent Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the second quarter valued at about $2,265,000. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the first quarter worth about $1,004,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 2.5% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 127,739 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $23,846,000 after acquiring an additional 3,125 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on CRM. Truist Financial cut shares of Salesforce from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Roth Capital reissued a "buy" rating and set a $325.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Salesforce from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Two equities research 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 given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $249.05.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

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 Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $195.86 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $146.32 and a 12 month high of $269.11. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $171.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $182.28. The stock has a market cap of $160.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.67, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.58 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 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 paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.37%.

About Salesforce

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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