Equitable Trust Co. Boosts Stake in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Equitable Trust Co. raised its stake in Salesforce by 21.7% in Q4 to 47,028 shares (about $12.46M), while institutional investors now own roughly 80.43% of the stock.
• Salesforce rolled out Agentforce Operations and deeper Google Cloud/ChatGPT integrations—moves seen as meaningful AI-driven product catalysts that could boost higher‑margin services, though competition and recent share weakness pose execution risks.
• The board authorized a $25 billion buyback (up to ~14.1% of shares), the company beat Q4 expectations (EPS $3.81 vs. $3.05), and raised its quarterly dividend to $0.44, signaling management confidence in the business and valuation.

Equitable Trust Co. grew its stake in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 21.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 47,028 shares of the CRM provider's stock after buying an additional 8,385 shares during the period. Equitable Trust Co.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $12,458,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,123,665 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $538,604,000 after buying an additional 93,997 shares during the last quarter. Destiny Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 20.4% in the fourth quarter. Destiny Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,022 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $271,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares during the period. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth $371,000. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. now owns 11,507 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $3,047,000 after acquiring an additional 625 shares during the period. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 9.7% in the fourth quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 19,174 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $5,079,000 after acquiring an additional 1,690 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Key Stories Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Launch of Agentforce Operations — Salesforce rolled out Agentforce Operations, a suite of specialized AI agents designed to automate complex, cross-system back‑office workflows. Investors see this as a meaningful productization of AI that could expand higher‑margin services and drive upsell across large enterprise accounts. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Deeper Google Cloud & ChatGPT integrations — New Google Cloud workflow integrations and enhanced ChatGPT-for-CRM capabilities let automated agents operate across multiple enterprise systems and LLMs, which can accelerate real‑world adoption and make Salesforce’s AI story more defensible versus pure-play rivals. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst sentiment remains constructive — The average brokerage recommendation sits at “Buy,” and coverage notes the strategic pivot and product launches as catalysts that could justify upside versus current multiples. That endorsement supports near‑term demand for the stock. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation check & comparisons — Several pieces assess CRM’s valuation vs. peers (including a CRM vs. SPOT comparison) and highlight that while upside exists from AI-driven revenue, the stock’s forward multiples require execution to justify a higher valuation. Useful for re‑rating scenarios, but not immediate catalysts. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry context — Coverage noting large tech layoffs and where AI economics live is background risk/benefit context; it matters to margins and adoption timing but is not Salesforce‑specific. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Intensifying competition — Reports emphasize escalating AI‑agent rivalry with Microsoft and ongoing cloud competition with Oracle; larger rivals could pressure win rates, pricing, or margin expansion if deals tilt toward hyperscalers. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Recent price weakness — Commentary notes a sizable YTD share decline (reflecting earnings, macro and re‑rating risk). That keeps investor sensitivity high: strong execution on Agentforce and integrations is required to sustain a re‑rating. Article Title

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The shares were acquired at an average price 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 $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the transaction, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRM has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $252.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $215.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $375.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $279.18.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $187.05 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. Salesforce Inc. has a twelve month low of $163.52 and a twelve month high of $296.05. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $186.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $219.76. The firm has a market cap of $153.05 billion, a PE ratio of 23.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.78 EPS. Salesforce's revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. This is a positive change from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.54%.

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.

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