Westpac Banking Corp Acquires New Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Westpac Banking Corp acquired a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 5,887 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $922,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Costello Asset Management INC lifted its position in Salesforce by 410.3% during the first quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gables Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter worth $28,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen cut Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Citigroup lifted their price target on Salesforce from $187.00 to $204.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $228.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday. Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Wedbush initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $249.87.

Salesforce News Roundup

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 Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $209.20 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $174.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $181.56. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The stock has a market cap of $171.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $269.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced 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. 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 analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.58 EPS. 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. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 20.37%.

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.