William Blair Investment Management LLC Takes $4.08 Million Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 26,046 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,080,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. Costello Asset Management INC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 410.3% during the 1st quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gables Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CRM. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, June 16th. HSBC upped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $250.00 price objective for the company. Wall Street Zen lowered Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price target on Salesforce from $200.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Buy rating, eighteen have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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 Stock Up 0.0%

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $209.20 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $171.33 billion, a PE ratio of 24.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $146.32 and a 1 year high of $269.11. 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’s 50-day moving average is $174.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $181.35.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 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 net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.58 earnings per share. 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 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. 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.