Flputnam Investment Management Co. Invests $5.67 Million in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Flputnam Investment Management Co. bought a new stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 36,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,674,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Birchwood Financial Partners Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Swiss RE Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Dogwood Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 285.7% during the fourth quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 108 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citizens Jmp reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Evercore restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Erste Group Bank raised Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, HC Wainwright lowered Salesforce to a “negative” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, seventeen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $249.05.

Salesforce News Summary

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 Trading Down 0.2%

NYSE:CRM opened at $195.86 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $160.41 billion, a PE ratio of 22.67, a PEG ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.16. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $171.41 and a 200-day moving average of $181.95. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $146.32 and a one year 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) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The CRM provider reported $3.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $11.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.58 EPS. The business’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, equities research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 11th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 20.37%.

Salesforce Company 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.