Flputnam Investment Management Co. Grows Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Flputnam Investment Management Co. increased its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 145.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 36,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 21,491 shares during the quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $5,674,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 2nd quarter worth about $11,396,844,000. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth about $1,914,086,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth about $3,182,951,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Salesforce by 130.2% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,363,096,000 after acquiring an additional 7,160,302 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on CRM shares. Piper Sandler lowered Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Citizens Jmp reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $205.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, fifteen have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $261.15.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.2%

CRM stock opened at $256.60 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $211.18 billion, a PE ratio of 23.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $146.32 and a 12 month high of $269.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $181.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $182.47.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.91 earnings per share. Salesforce’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.