Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. Invests $5.90 Million in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 37,643 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,897,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 270,913 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $11,396,844,000. State Street Corp lifted its position in Salesforce by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,286,909,000 after buying an additional 659,573 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its stake in 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 worth $12,552,896,000 after buying an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its position in Salesforce by 13.3% during 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 acquiring an additional 2,669,891 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. HSBC lifted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered shares of Salesforce from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $185.00 target price (down from $287.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Susquehanna initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $194.00 to $173.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Two 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 given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $249.49.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Agentforce adoption is accelerating. Salesforce’s Agentforce annual recurring revenue reportedly surged 205%, suggesting rising customer usage and deeper integration of AI agents into its CRM platform. This supports the company’s efforts to remain competitive in enterprise AI. Will Agentforce Help Salesforce Stay Ahead in the Enterprise AI Race?
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce expanded Headless 360 across its portfolio, potentially giving customers more flexible ways to deploy Salesforce data and services across digital channels. Broader product integration could support retention, cross-selling and long-term platform value. Salesforce Expands Headless 360 Across Its Portfolio
• Positive Sentiment: Sector rotation and value interest are supporting CRM. Investors have been moving from semiconductor stocks into underperforming software names, while some analysts characterize Salesforce as attractively valued for long-term investors. Netflix, Salesforce, and Adobe Rally as Investors Rotate
• Neutral Sentiment: The upcoming August 26 earnings report is the next major catalyst. Salesforce recently exceeded quarterly EPS and revenue expectations, but investors will focus on forward guidance, Agentforce monetization and whether growth can reaccelerate. Salesforce Projected to Announce Earnings
• Positive Sentiment: Anthropic exposure offers a potential strategic benefit. Salesforce has participated in Anthropic funding rounds and integrates Claude, giving CRM indirect exposure to the enterprise AI company’s reported growth and possible future valuation gains. The Pre-IPO Playbook: How to Cash in on Anthropic Before the Bell
• Negative Sentiment: Near-term earnings expectations remain a risk. Zacks said Salesforce lacks the combination of factors that typically supports a likely earnings beat, raising the possibility of disappointment if guidance or AI-related results fall short. Salesforce Earnings Expected to Grow
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst upgrades have not consistently translated into sustained gains. This keeps the stock dependent on tangible earnings evidence, particularly as investors question whether generative AI could weaken traditional software business models. Analyst upgrades keep failing Salesforce

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $205.92 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $168.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.83, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week 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. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $172.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $181.41.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter last 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. Analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.