Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Buys Shares of 366,320 Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 366,320 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $57,388,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in CRM. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth approximately $11,396,844,000. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 50,080,230 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,286,909,000 after purchasing an additional 659,573 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its holdings in Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 47,385,511 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $12,552,896,000 after purchasing an additional 47,189,352 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its position in Salesforce by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,721,010 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $6,019,199,000 after purchasing an additional 2,669,891 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,782,556 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,751,073,000 after purchasing an additional 791,345 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on CRM shares. UBS Group upped their price target on Salesforce from $210.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Salesforce from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Bank of America started coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Monday, May 18th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $160.00 price objective for the company. Scotiabank lowered shares of Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, CLSA began coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, July 20th. They set a “hold” rating and a $165.00 target price on the stock. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $261.15.

Salesforce Trading Up 22.6%

CRM stock opened at $252.15 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $179.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $182.03. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11. The firm has a market cap of $206.51 billion, a PE ratio of 22.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 23.35%. The company had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.91 earnings per share. Salesforce’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 16.670-16.710 EPS and its Q3 2027 guidance at 3.420-3.440 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong quarterly performance: Salesforce reported adjusted EPS of $5.90, well above the $3.27 consensus, while revenue rose 10.8% year over year to $11.35 billion, slightly exceeding expectations. Profit was also helped by gains on strategic investments, including Salesforce’s stake in Anthropic. Salesforce stock jumps on AI growth and Anthropic investment gain
• Positive Sentiment: Raised outlook: Management lifted fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to $46.1 billion-$46.4 billion and EPS guidance to $16.67-$16.71. Third-quarter EPS guidance of $3.42-$3.44 also topped the $3.16 analyst estimate, signaling confidence in demand and profitability. Salesforce raises annual revenue forecasts on AI product momentum
• Positive Sentiment: AI adoption is gaining traction: Current remaining performance obligations accelerated 14% in constant currency, while Agentforce and Data 360 annual recurring revenue approached $3.9 billion. Reports also highlighted a sixfold increase in AI usage, supporting the view that AI may expand Salesforce’s platform rather than replace it. Jim Cramer says Nvidia and Salesforce earnings upended two bear narratives
• Positive Sentiment: Anthropic partnership expands Salesforce’s AI offering: The “Claudeforce” initiative integrates Anthropic’s Claude with Salesforce workflows, data and governance, including prebuilt sales skills. Investors view the partnership as a potential catalyst for Agentforce adoption and AI monetization. Salesforce and Anthropic announce Claudeforce
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst reaction improved: JPMorgan, Mizuho, BMO, Truist and Monness Crespi raised their price targets, with targets ranging from $260 to $300; Needham maintained a Buy rating with a $400 target. The results were widely described as weakening the “SaaSpocalypse” bear thesis. Salesforce Q2 results squash SaaSpocalypse fears

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.