Madison Asset Management LLC Buys New Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Madison Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 76,505 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $11,985,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CRM. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its stake in Salesforce by 0.3% in the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,548,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 745 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $197,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Synergy Financial Group LTD boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 2.4% during the third quarter. Synergy Financial Group LTD now owns 2,035 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $482,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Arbor Capital Management Inc. ADV grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Arbor Capital Management Inc. ADV now owns 3,321 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $884,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 35.4% during the fourth quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 199 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Agentforce adoption is accelerating. Salesforce’s Agentforce annual recurring revenue reportedly surged 205%, suggesting rising customer usage and deeper integration of AI agents into its CRM platform. This supports the company’s efforts to remain competitive in enterprise AI. Will Agentforce Help Salesforce Stay Ahead in the Enterprise AI Race?
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce expanded Headless 360 across its portfolio, potentially giving customers more flexible ways to deploy Salesforce data and services across digital channels. Broader product integration could support retention, cross-selling and long-term platform value. Salesforce Expands Headless 360 Across Its Portfolio
• Positive Sentiment: Sector rotation and value interest are supporting CRM. Investors have been moving from semiconductor stocks into underperforming software names, while some analysts characterize Salesforce as attractively valued for long-term investors. Netflix, Salesforce, and Adobe Rally as Investors Rotate
• Neutral Sentiment: The upcoming August 26 earnings report is the next major catalyst. Salesforce recently exceeded quarterly EPS and revenue expectations, but investors will focus on forward guidance, Agentforce monetization and whether growth can reaccelerate. Salesforce Projected to Announce Earnings
• Positive Sentiment: Anthropic exposure offers a potential strategic benefit. Salesforce has participated in Anthropic funding rounds and integrates Claude, giving CRM indirect exposure to the enterprise AI company’s reported growth and possible future valuation gains. The Pre-IPO Playbook: How to Cash in on Anthropic Before the Bell
• Negative Sentiment: Near-term earnings expectations remain a risk. Zacks said Salesforce lacks the combination of factors that typically supports a likely earnings beat, raising the possibility of disappointment if guidance or AI-related results fall short. Salesforce Earnings Expected to Grow
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst upgrades have not consistently translated into sustained gains. This keeps the stock dependent on tangible earnings evidence, particularly as investors question whether generative AI could weaken traditional software business models. Analyst upgrades keep failing Salesforce

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Phillip Securities lowered Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $253.00 to $166.00 in a report on Monday, June 29th. Citizens Jmp reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $250.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, May 18th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $160.00 price objective for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $249.49.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $205.92 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Salesforce Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $146.32 and a fifty-two week high of $269.11. The business has a fifty day moving average of $172.69 and a 200-day moving average of $181.41. The stock has a market cap of $168.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.16.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results 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 analyst estimates of $11.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.58 earnings per share. 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. As a group, analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 11th were paid 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 currently 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.