Haverford Trust Co Invests $988,000 in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Haverford Trust acquired 6,309 Salesforce shares during the second quarter, valued at approximately $988,000. Institutional investors collectively own 80.43% of Salesforce.
• Salesforce recently reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results, with $11.13 billion in revenue and $3.88 in EPS, while analysts maintain a generally positive outlook driven by AI-powered enterprise software demand.
• Risks include increased leverage after Salesforce funded part of its record $27 billion buyback with $25 billion in new debt, alongside concerns that slower growth or weak AI monetization could pressure the stock.

Haverford Trust Co acquired a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 6,309 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $988,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Salesforce by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $23,800,353,000 after acquiring an additional 270,913 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth $11,396,844,000. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew 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 purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Key Stories 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

Salesforce Stock Up 1.8%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $209.20 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $174.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $181.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $171.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.21, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.16. 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 quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. Salesforce's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.58 earnings per share. 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 forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Citizens Jmp reiterated a "market outperform" rating and set a $315.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Salesforce from $215.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, May 18th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $160.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, HC Wainwright cut shares of Salesforce to a "negative" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating, eighteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $249.87.

Salesforce 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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