North Star Asset Management Inc. Takes $11.34 Million Position in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

North Star Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 72,375 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $11,338,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 683,790 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $181,143,000 after acquiring an additional 24,332 shares in the last quarter. SFE Investment Counsel grew its position in Salesforce by 82.7% during the 4th quarter. SFE Investment Counsel now owns 17,394 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,608,000 after purchasing an additional 7,871 shares in the last quarter. Fluent Financial LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,265,000. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the 1st quarter valued at $1,004,000. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 127,739 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $23,846,000 after purchasing an additional 3,125 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wolfe Research lowered Salesforce from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Macquarie Infrastructure decreased their target price on Salesforce from $200.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Wedbush assumed coverage on Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Finally, HC Wainwright lowered shares of Salesforce to a “negative” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $261.15.

Salesforce Price Performance

Salesforce stock opened at $252.15 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization 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. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $146.32 and a one year high of $269.11. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $179.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $182.03.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. The company 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 23.35%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company 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, sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

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

About Salesforce

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.