Empowered Funds LLC Makes New Investment in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund acquired 170,123 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $26,651,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at approximately $11,396,844,000. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its holdings in Salesforce by 24,056.7% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in Salesforce during the second quarter valued at $1,914,086,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at $3,182,951,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 130.2% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,659,217 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,363,096,000 after buying an additional 7,160,302 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

CRM stock opened at $252.15 on Friday. The stock 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. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $179.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $182.03. 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 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $2.63. The firm had revenue of $11.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.33 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 23.35% and a net margin of 21.99%.The company’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $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. As a group, research analysts forecast that Salesforce Inc. will post 10.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Key Headlines 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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the subject of several research reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Susquehanna assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. They issued a “neutral” rating on the stock. HC Wainwright downgraded shares of Salesforce to a “negative” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. CLSA assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, July 20th. They set a “hold” rating and a $165.00 target price for the company. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, sixteen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $261.15.

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.