Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Acquires New Shares in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 132,625 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $20,945,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter worth $27,000. Finally, Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the third quarter worth $28,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce News Roundup

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 Trading Up 1.8%

NYSE CRM opened at $256.60 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $181.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $182.55. The stock has a market cap of $210.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.16. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $146.32 and a 12-month high of $269.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. The business had revenue of $11.35 billion during 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.91 earnings per share. 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, analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday. B. Riley Financial raised their price objective on Salesforce from $205.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Evercore reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $261.15.

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.