Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC Takes Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 7,316 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,346,000. Salesforce makes up about 0.9% of Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest position.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Avalon Trust Co acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter worth about $195,000. Pacific Sage Partners LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $294,000. TFR Capital LLC. acquired a new position in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $327,000. One Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $279,000. Finally, Clearstead Trust LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $306,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan resumed coverage with an Overweight rating and a $250 price target, citing potential acceleration in Salesforce’s core business during the second half of the year. The target implies more than 24% upside from recent levels. JPMorgan bullish Salesforce coverage
• Positive Sentiment: Monness Crespi & Hardt raised its Salesforce price target to $222 from $200 and maintained a Buy rating. UBS and Wells Fargo also reportedly forecast strong appreciation, reinforcing improving sell-side sentiment. Monness Crespi Salesforce price target
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s Agentforce platform is gaining traction, giving the company a way to use its large CRM customer base to compete with Microsoft and Oracle in enterprise “agentic” AI. Salesforce agentic AI analysis
• Positive Sentiment: A Seeking Alpha analysis argues that Salesforce’s $27.1 billion share-repurchase program, equivalent to an estimated 23% net buyback yield, could support earnings-per-share growth. The stock also appears inexpensive at roughly 14 times forward earnings, although buybacks have increased debt. Salesforce buyback analysis
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce has recently posted strong momentum, with reports noting three consecutive weeks of gains and substantial one-month appreciation. That run may be encouraging investors, but it also raises the possibility of profit-taking.
• Negative Sentiment: Parnassus Investments indicated that Salesforce has lost favor as AI opportunities shift toward competing or substitute technologies. Other commentary likewise warns that alternative software and AI-native tools threaten Salesforce’s traditional CRM franchise. Salesforce AI competition concerns

Salesforce Trading Down 2.7%

CRM stock opened at $195.86 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $146.32 and a 1-year high of $269.11. The firm has a market cap of $160.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.16. The business’s 50 day moving average is $171.41 and its 200-day moving average is $182.28. 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.Salesforce’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last 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. Equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.37%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the topic of a number of research reports. CLSA started coverage on Salesforce in a research report on Monday, July 20th. They set a “hold” rating and a $165.00 price objective on the stock. Wolfe Research lowered Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Truist Financial cut Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $225.00 to $215.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $255.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating, seventeen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $249.05.

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.