B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG Takes Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG acquired 101,305 Salesforce shares in the second quarter, valued at approximately $15.87 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Salesforce’s AI business remains a key growth driver: Agentforce annual recurring revenue reportedly rose 205%, while analysts cited potential gains from agentic workflows and new platform integrations.
• Upcoming fiscal Q2 2027 earnings on August 26 are the main near-term catalyst. Although the stock has a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating and an average price target of $249.87, analysts remain divided and some caution that Salesforce may lack the indicators for an earnings beat.

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 101,305 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $15,870,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $23,800,353,000 after purchasing an additional 270,913 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter worth $11,396,844,000. State Street Corp boosted 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 valued at $13,286,909,000 after acquiring an additional 659,573 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 24,056.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors increased 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 valued at $6,019,199,000 after buying an additional 2,669,891 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analyst targets imply upside. Guggenheim reaffirmed its “buy” rating with a $228 price target, while Cantor Fitzgerald maintained an “overweight” rating and a $250 target. Cantor expects Salesforce to capture a meaningful share of next-generation agentic workflows. Guggenheim analyst rating Cantor Fitzgerald analyst comments
• Positive Sentiment: Agentforce momentum is a key bullish argument. Salesforce’s Agentforce annual recurring revenue reportedly surged 205% as customer adoption increased, strengthening the case that its AI offering can support growth and deepen customer integration. Agentforce AI analysis
• Positive Sentiment: New product distribution could expand Salesforce’s ecosystem. Agiloft announced Agiloft for Salesforce on Salesforce AgentExchange, while Salesforce is expanding its Headless 360 portfolio. These developments highlight efforts to make its platform more flexible and useful for enterprise AI and workflow applications. Agiloft for Salesforce announcement Headless 360 expansion
• Neutral Sentiment: Earnings are the immediate test. Salesforce is expected to report fiscal Q2 2027 results on August 26. Investors are looking for evidence that AI adoption is translating into revenue growth and sustainable guidance; recent commentary points to expectations for earnings growth but does not establish a likely beat. Salesforce earnings preview
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation and strategic positioning remain debated. Some coverage calls CRM a long-term value opportunity, while other analysis questions whether it could be a value trap. Salesforce’s potential indirect exposure to Anthropic also adds interest, but the benefit depends on future commercial partnerships and adoption. Salesforce value trap analysis
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst support has not resolved investor concerns. Commentary notes that repeated upgrades have failed to produce a durable rerating, keeping the focus on August 26 results rather than opinion changes from Wall Street. Analyst upgrades and Salesforce earnings
• Negative Sentiment: Salesforce may lack the setup for an earnings beat. Zacks said CRM does not currently have the right combination of indicators that typically supports a likely earnings surprise, raising the risk of disappointment if guidance or AI monetization falls short. Salesforce earnings expectations

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $205.61 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.32 and a 1 year high of $269.11. The firm has a market cap of $168.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.80, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.16. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $173.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $181.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.58 earnings per share. 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. Research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were given 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 0.9%. Salesforce's payout ratio is 20.37%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on CRM shares. B. Riley Financial upped their price target on Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Scotiabank lowered Salesforce from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. TD Cowen reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $253.00 to $166.00 in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Two equities 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 assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $249.87.

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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