Northstar Group Inc. Invests $860,000 in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Northstar Group acquired 5,492 Salesforce shares worth approximately $860,000 in the second quarter. Institutional investors collectively own about 80.4% of Salesforce.
• Salesforce reported quarterly EPS of $3.88, exceeding estimates of $3.13, while revenue rose 13.3% year over year to $11.13 billion. The company also pays a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, yielding about 0.9% annually.
• Analyst sentiment is generally positive, with Salesforce holding a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating and an average price target of $249.05. However, concerns remain about competition from AI-native tools and rival platforms, despite optimism around Agentforce and the company’s share-repurchase program.

Northstar Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 5,492 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $860,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Key Capital Management INC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Costello Asset Management INC increased its stake in Salesforce by 410.3% in the 1st quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Birchwood Financial Partners Inc. acquired a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Key Headlines 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

Salesforce stock opened at $195.86 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11. The company has a market capitalization of $160.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.67, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 1.16. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $171.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $182.28. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.58 earnings per share. The business's 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. On average, analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were given a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Barclays upgraded shares of Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Salesforce from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, seventeen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $249.05.

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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