Strait & Sound Wealth Management LLC Takes Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Strait & Sound Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 1,986 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $311,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter worth approximately $11,396,844,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in Salesforce by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew 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 valued at $12,552,896,000 after acquiring an additional 47,189,352 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,019,199,000 after buying an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Salesforce by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,751,073,000 after purchasing an additional 791,345 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the subject of several research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday. Macquarie Infrastructure cut their price target on Salesforce from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Mizuho upped their price target on Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays lifted their target price on Salesforce from $236.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and set a $255.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, August 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $261.15.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $256.60 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $210.16 billion, a PE ratio of 23.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 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. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $181.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $182.55. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $146.32 and a 52-week high of $269.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 24.90%. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.91 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 EPS for the current year.

Key Salesforce News

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 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.