F&V Capital Management LLC Acquires New Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

F&V Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 84,843 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $13,292,000. Salesforce accounts for about 2.5% of F&V Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth about $25,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Gilpin Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Finally, Costello Asset Management INC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 410.3% during the first quarter. Costello Asset Management INC now owns 148 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on CRM. Citigroup upped their target price on Salesforce from $204.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Daiwa Securities Group reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $295.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt boosted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $222.00 to $266.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Scotiabank lowered Salesforce from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $261.15.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

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 Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $256.60 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.84. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $146.32 and a 1-year high of $269.11. The company has a market cap of $211.18 billion, a PE ratio of 23.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.16. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $181.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $182.47.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 26th. The CRM provider reported $5.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $2.63. Salesforce had a return on equity of 24.90% and a net margin of 21.99%.The company had revenue of $11.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.91 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter 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. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 12.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.