GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC Sells 2,971 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC reduced its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 5.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 51,949 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 2,971 shares during the quarter. GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $13,762,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rockland Trust Co. raised its holdings in Salesforce by 1,145.6% during the 3rd quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 13,066 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,097,000 after buying an additional 12,017 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Salesforce by 98.3% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 21,455 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,085,000 after buying an additional 10,633 shares during the last quarter. Midwest Trust Co raised its holdings in Salesforce by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 187,071 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $44,336,000 after buying an additional 4,233 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in Salesforce by 15.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 467,551 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $113,420,000 after buying an additional 61,270 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. raised its holdings in Salesforce by 42.2% during the 3rd quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 281,054 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $66,610,000 after buying an additional 83,403 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $281.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $375.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $279.18.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce will change its revenue reporting from FY27 to better align with its AI-led “Agentic Enterprise” strategy, which investors view as improving transparency into AI-driven revenue and could re-rate valuation multiples if it highlights faster growth. Salesforce Inc’s (CRM) New Reporting Structure To Give Better Insights Into AI Driven Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Navatar launched an AI-powered corporate finance advisory operating model built on Salesforce, showing ecosystem demand for Salesforce’s AI platform and potential to drive more industry-specific ARR and services. Navatar Brings AI-Powered Corporate Finance Advisory CRM to Salesforce
• Positive Sentiment: Merck Animal Health selected Salesforce’s Agentforce Life Sciences for customer engagement, a sizable enterprise win that validates cross-industry adoption of Salesforce’s AI CRM offerings. Merck Animal Health Selects Salesforce’s Agentforce Life Sciences
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage from Zacks and other outlets continues to position CRM alongside big-data/AI leaders (e.g., NVDA, PLTR), reinforcing investor perception of Salesforce as a core beneficiary of enterprise AI demand. Top Big Data Stocks Powering the AI Boom
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst commentary (Barclays mention, etc.) argues the market may be underestimating Salesforce’s positioning in AI infrastructure/software, supporting a bullish narrative for medium-term revenue upside. Is the Market Missing the Point on Salesforce Inc (CRM)’s AI Positioning?
• Neutral Sentiment: Long-form pieces ask whether Salesforce is prepared for life after founder/CEO Marc Benioff — a governance and succession-topic that could influence investor sentiment over time but does not change near-term fundamentals. Beyond Benioff: Is Salesforce Ready for Life Without Its Founder?
• Negative Sentiment: Recent intraday volatility and a prior session where CRM underperformed the market underscore short-term risk and profit-taking that can offset positive newsflows. Salesforce (CRM) Stock Drops Despite Market Gains

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Salesforce Stock Up 2.8%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $186.27 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $186.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $218.91. The company has a market cap of $152.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.85, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.14. Salesforce Inc. has a 12-month low of $163.52 and a 12-month high of $296.05.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The company’s revenue was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.78 EPS. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were given a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. This is a boost from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 22.54%.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, March 16th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the CRM provider to buy up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.