Portland Investment Counsel Inc. Buys Shares of 3,875 Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Portland Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 3,875 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $607,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CRM. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 acquiring an additional 270,913 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter worth $11,396,844,000. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Salesforce by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its position in Salesforce by 24,056.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted 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 worth $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce News Roundup

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on CRM shares. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. CLSA began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, July 20th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $165.00 price objective on the stock. Piper Sandler cut shares of Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, May 18th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $160.00 target price for the company. Two 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $249.87.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $209.20 on Monday. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $146.32 and a 52 week high of $269.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $174.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $181.35. The company has a market cap of $171.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.21, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. The company had revenue of $11.13 billion for 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%. Salesforce’s revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. 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. Equities research analysts forecast 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. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 20.37%.

Salesforce Company 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.