Flputnam Investment Management Co. Takes Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Flputnam Investment Management acquired 36,217 Salesforce shares worth approximately $5.67 million in the second quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 80.43% of CRM’s outstanding stock.
• Salesforce reported quarterly adjusted EPS of $3.88, beating estimates of $3.13, while revenue rose 13.3% year over year to $11.13 billion. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.44 per share, yielding about 0.9% annually.
• Analyst sentiment is broadly positive, with JPMorgan initiating an Overweight rating and a $250 price target; however, some analysts remain cautious, and investors face risks from AI-native competitors and alternative CRM technologies.

Flputnam Investment Management Co. bought a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 36,217 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $5,674,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $3,548,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Richards Merrill & Peterson Inc. now owns 4,239 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,123,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 745 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $197,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Financial Group LTD boosted its stake in Salesforce by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Synergy Financial Group LTD now owns 2,035 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $482,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Finally, Arbor Capital Management Inc. ADV boosted its stake in Salesforce by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Arbor Capital Management Inc. ADV now owns 3,321 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $884,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: JPMorgan resumed coverage with an Overweight rating and a $250 price target, citing potential acceleration in Salesforce’s core business during the second half of the year. The target implies more than 24% upside from recent levels. JPMorgan bullish Salesforce coverage
• Positive Sentiment: Monness Crespi & Hardt raised its Salesforce price target to $222 from $200 and maintained a Buy rating. UBS and Wells Fargo also reportedly forecast strong appreciation, reinforcing improving sell-side sentiment. Monness Crespi Salesforce price target
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce’s Agentforce platform is gaining traction, giving the company a way to use its large CRM customer base to compete with Microsoft and Oracle in enterprise “agentic” AI. Salesforce agentic AI analysis
• Positive Sentiment: A Seeking Alpha analysis argues that Salesforce’s $27.1 billion share-repurchase program, equivalent to an estimated 23% net buyback yield, could support earnings-per-share growth. The stock also appears inexpensive at roughly 14 times forward earnings, although buybacks have increased debt. Salesforce buyback analysis
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce has recently posted strong momentum, with reports noting three consecutive weeks of gains and substantial one-month appreciation. That run may be encouraging investors, but it also raises the possibility of profit-taking.
• Negative Sentiment: Parnassus Investments indicated that Salesforce has lost favor as AI opportunities shift toward competing or substitute technologies. Other commentary likewise warns that alternative software and AI-native tools threaten Salesforce’s traditional CRM franchise. Salesforce AI competition concerns

Salesforce Stock Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $195.86 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $160.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.16. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $171.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $181.95. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $269.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The firm had revenue of $11.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.58 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business 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. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is 20.37%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Phillip Securities lowered Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and cut their price target for the stock from $253.00 to $166.00 in a report on Monday, June 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. They issued a "neutral" rating on the stock. Guggenheim upgraded shares of Salesforce from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $228.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Erste Group Bank upgraded Salesforce from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on Salesforce in a report on Thursday. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $250.00 price target for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $249.05.

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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