Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Makes New Investment in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. acquired a new position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 7,199 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,128,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $11,396,844,000. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its position in shares of 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 during the period. Capital International Investors grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% in 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 buying an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,751,073,000 after buying an additional 791,345 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on CRM shares. Roth Capital reissued a “buy” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. B. Riley Financial increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Scotiabank lowered shares of Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. HSBC boosted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating, eighteen have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $249.87.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BTIG Research reaffirmed its Buy rating and set a $255 price target, implying substantial upside from recent trading levels. The bullish view reflects confidence in Salesforce’s AI opportunity and earnings outlook. Benzinga article
• Positive Sentiment: One analyst argues Salesforce remains undervalued, citing its AI-enabled growth potential, modest valuation and significant share repurchases. The company’s reported $27.5 billion buyback has reduced shares outstanding and could provide support for earnings per share and the stock. Salesforce Forcing Itself Higher Through Massive Buybacks And AI-Led Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts expect AI cloud demand, acquisitions and disciplined spending to support second-quarter results, with revenue growth forecast at approximately 10.6%. Salesforce is also being discussed as a potential beneficiary of broader enterprise AI adoption. Salesforce Set to Report Q2 Earnings
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce has rallied toward the $210 area and is testing a resistance zone near its June high. A strong earnings reaction could determine whether the recent advance continues or stalls. Salesforce Stock Hits a Crucial Resistance Ahead of Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: The main risk is that Salesforce’s earnings report fails to demonstrate a meaningful sales-growth reacceleration. Analysts and investors remain cautious about slower software growth, elevated AI expectations and the possibility that the broader AI trade could weaken. Salesforce Earnings Due: Will Sales Growth Reacceleration Hold Up?

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $209.19 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $171.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.21, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $146.32 and a one year high of $269.11. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $175.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $181.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a return on equity of 18.72% and a net margin of 18.73%.The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.58 earnings per share. Salesforce’s quarterly 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. Equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 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.