Royal London Asset Management Ltd. cut its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM – Free Report) by 14.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 207,381 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 34,678 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $32,488,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Field & Main Bank purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth about $725,000. Prosperitas Financial LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter valued at about $477,000. Lombard Odier Asset Management Europe Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter worth about $7,249,000. Archer Investment Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Kingsview Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $3,788,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
A number of research firms have recently commented on CRM. DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $255.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, August 24th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Salesforce from $230.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $261.15.
Salesforce News Summary
Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Strong quarterly beat and raised outlook: Salesforce reported adjusted EPS of $5.90 versus the $3.27 consensus estimate, while revenue rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion, broadly topping expectations. Management raised its fiscal 2027 revenue outlook to approximately $46.1 billion-$46.4 billion and pointed to stronger bookings, lower attrition and potential organic growth reacceleration. Salesforce Stock Soars After Strong Results, Raised Outlook
- Positive Sentiment: AI partnership strengthens the growth narrative: Salesforce expanded its alliance with Anthropic, integrating Claude into Agentforce and launching “Claudeforce,” which places Salesforce CRM capabilities inside Claude. Investors viewed the agreement as evidence that Salesforce can monetize AI and benefit from rising usage; Agentforce and Data 360 annual recurring revenue approached $3.9 billion, with Agentforce ARR reaching about $1.5 billion. Salesforce Soars on Earnings Beat and AI Partnership
- Positive Sentiment: Analyst and institutional support: Wolfe Research upgraded CRM to “strong buy,” while several firms raised price targets, including Truist to $300, JPMorgan to $265 and Mizuho to $265. Heavy trading and reports of institutional buying suggest investors are reassessing the stock’s valuation and the broader software sector’s AI prospects.
- Neutral Sentiment: Profit quality warrants scrutiny: Strategic investment gains contributed $2.53 of the $5.90 adjusted EPS, including an estimated $2.7 billion unrealized gain tied to Salesforce’s Anthropic investment. This boosted reported earnings but may not represent recurring operating performance. Salesforce Stock Just Soared. Thank Anthropic.
- Negative Sentiment: Valuation and execution risks remain: After the rally, some analysts still see limited upside or downside, with UBS, Citi, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo retaining neutral or equivalent ratings. Critics also caution that Anthropic could control the AI orchestration layer, potentially limiting Salesforce’s long-term strategic leverage, while the rapid move may already price in much of the AI opportunity.
Salesforce Stock Up 1.8%
Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $256.60 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $269.11. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $181.24 and a 200 day moving average of $182.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $210.16 billion, a PE ratio of 23.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.38 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.84.
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%.The business had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.91 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.
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.
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