Weitz Investment Management Inc. Acquires New Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Weitz Investment Management acquired a new Salesforce stake of 49,300 shares during the second quarter, valued at approximately $7.7 million. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 80.43% of CRM.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive, with Salesforce carrying a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating and an average price target of $249.87. Expectations are focused on upcoming results and the company’s potential to benefit from AI-powered enterprise workflows.
• Salesforce’s latest quarter exceeded expectations, with revenue rising 13.3% year over year to $11.13 billion and EPS reaching $3.88. However, investors should weigh the company’s increased leverage after funding part of its record $27 billion buyback with new debt.

Weitz Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 49,300 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $7,723,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 24,332 shares in the last quarter. SFE Investment Counsel grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 82.7% in the 4th quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $4,608,000 after acquiring an additional 7,871 shares during the last quarter. Fluent Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth $2,265,000. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the first quarter valued at $1,004,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings 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 valued at $23,846,000 after purchasing an additional 3,125 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Trending Headlines about 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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on CRM shares. B. Riley Financial lifted their price target on Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Salesforce from a "sell (d+)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. DA Davidson decreased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $187.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, HSBC boosted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. 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 given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $249.87.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $209.20 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11. The stock's 50-day moving average is $174.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $181.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market cap of $171.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.21, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The firm's revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.58 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.060-14.120 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 3.250-3.270 EPS. Analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a 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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