Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. Acquires New Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 4,812 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $754,000.

A number of other hedge funds 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. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Birchwood Financial Partners Inc. purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Swiss RE Ltd. purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Dogwood Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 285.7% during the fourth quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 108 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the company. DA Davidson decreased their target price on Salesforce from $200.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, May 18th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $160.00 price objective on the stock. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. HSBC upped 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. Finally, Scotiabank cut shares of Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Two investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $249.87.

Salesforce News Summary

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 Trading Up 1.8%

Salesforce stock opened at $209.20 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $171.33 billion, a PE ratio of 24.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.16. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $174.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $181.56. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $146.32 and a 52 week high of $269.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) 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. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $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. Equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share 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 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 20.37%.

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.