Plato Investment Management Ltd Makes New Investment in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Plato Investment Management acquired 52,009 Salesforce shares worth approximately $8.1 million in the second quarter. Institutional investors collectively own 80.43% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed: several firms recently downgraded or lowered targets, while JPMorgan resumed coverage with an Overweight rating and a $250 target. MarketBeat’s consensus remains a “Moderate Buy” with a $249.05 price target.
• Salesforce reported quarterly revenue of $11.13 billion, up 13.3% year over year, and EPS of $3.88, beating expectations. Investor optimism centers on Agentforce and the company’s $27.1 billion buyback program, though competition from AI-native technologies remains a concern.

Plato Investment Management Ltd acquired a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 52,009 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $8,100,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new stake in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Costello Asset Management INC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 410.3% in the 1st quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. Birchwood Financial Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Swiss RE Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on CRM shares. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "equal weight" rating and issued a $185.00 target price (down from $287.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Salesforce from an "outperform" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. HC Wainwright cut shares of Salesforce to a "negative" rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, May 18th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $160.00 target price for the company. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating, seventeen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $249.05.

More Salesforce News

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 Price Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $195.86 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $160.41 billion, a PE ratio of 22.67, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.16. The company's 50-day moving average is $171.41 and its 200-day moving average is $181.95. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two 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 announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.13 by $0.75. Salesforce had a net margin of 18.73% and a return on equity of 18.72%. The business had revenue of $11.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. Salesforce's revenue 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. Equities analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 11th. Salesforce's payout ratio is currently 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.

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