Alta Advisers Ltd Purchases New Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Alta Advisers purchased a new 3,670-share Salesforce position valued at approximately $575,000 during the second quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce shares.
• Salesforce reported quarterly revenue of $11.13 billion, up 13.3% year over year, and EPS of $3.88, exceeding analyst expectations. Analysts maintain a generally positive outlook, with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and a $249.87 price target.
• Investors are watching upcoming earnings and Salesforce’s AI growth prospects, while risks include slowing growth and increased leverage after the company funded part of its record $27 billion buyback with $25 billion in new debt.

Alta Advisers Ltd purchased a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 3,670 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $575,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at $11,396,844,000. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its position in shares of 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 valued at $12,552,896,000 after acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,182,951,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $2,363,096,000 after acquiring an additional 7,160,302 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $844,928,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Favorable earnings setup: Oppenheimer and other analysts see potential upside from Salesforce’s upcoming results, while market expectations point to a possible post-earnings move toward the stock’s highest level since January. Salesforce Faces Favorable Second-Quarter Setup With Upside Potential How Much Salesforce Stock Is Expected to Move After Earnings
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support: Guggenheim reaffirmed a Buy rating with a $228 price target, while Cantor Fitzgerald maintained an Overweight rating and set a $250 target. The calls reflect confidence that Salesforce can capture demand for next-generation AI-powered, “agentic” enterprise workflows. Cantor Fitzgerald Salesforce Analyst Comment
• Positive Sentiment: Growth and capital returns: Zacks characterizes Salesforce as a strong growth stock, while a report highlights a record $27 billion quarterly share repurchase program. Buybacks could support earnings per share and signal that management views the shares as undervalued. Why Salesforce Is a Strong Growth Stock Salesforce Record Stock Buybacks
• Neutral Sentiment: Results are the next catalyst: Analysts are focused on revenue, EPS, and operating metrics for the quarter ended July 2026. Salesforce previously reported $11.13 billion of quarterly revenue, up 13.3% year over year, and EPS of $3.88, above consensus. Salesforce Q2 Earnings Estimates
• Neutral Sentiment: AI platform positioning: Coverage comparing Salesforce with ServiceNow suggests investors are rotating toward enterprise application software as AI investment broadens beyond hardware. Salesforce’s Headless 360 strategy and the Agiloft integration on AgentExchange offer additional evidence of ecosystem expansion. Salesforce Versus ServiceNow
• Negative Sentiment: Risks remain: The buybacks were funded partly with $25 billion of new debt, increasing leverage and interest obligations. Separate commentary questions whether Salesforce could become a value trap if growth slows or AI monetization disappoints. Salesforce Value Trap Analysis

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. HSBC lifted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $228.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday. DA Davidson dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, BTIG Research reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $255.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $249.87.

Salesforce Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $209.20 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $171.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.21, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current 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 firm's 50-day moving average price is $174.33 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $181.56.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued 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 analysts' expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.58 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter 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. On average, analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Salesforce's payout ratio is 20.37%.

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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