Encore Global Management LP Takes $3.52 Million Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Encore Global Management LP purchased a new position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 22,500 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,525,000. Salesforce accounts for 3.5% of Encore Global Management LP’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest position.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $23,800,353,000 after acquiring an additional 270,913 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at $11,396,844,000. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $12,552,896,000 after purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its position in Salesforce by 13.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CRM. HSBC boosted 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. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $185.00 target price (down from $287.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Piper Sandler lowered shares of Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $250.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, HC Wainwright cut shares of Salesforce to a “negative” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock 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 1.8%

Salesforce stock opened at $209.20 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $171.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.21, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.16. 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 company’s 50 day simple moving average is $174.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $181.56.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (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 return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm 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. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.