GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC trimmed its stake in Salesforce by 5.4% in Q4, selling 2,971 shares and retaining 51,949 shares valued at about $13.76 million.
• Salesforce reported a quarterly EPS beat of $3.81 (vs. $3.05 estimated), set FY27 guidance of 13.110–13.190 EPS, raised its quarterly dividend to $0.44, and authorized a $25.00 billion share buyback program.
• Several analysts cut targets recently, but the consensus rating remains a Moderate Buy with an average target price of about $279.18, while the stock trades near the mid-$180s.

GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC decreased its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 5.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 51,949 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 2,971 shares during the period. GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $13,762,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $8,582,000 after purchasing an additional 3,102 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $611,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $747,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $807,000 after purchasing an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Finally, United Bank lifted its stake in Salesforce by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,781,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price 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. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, April 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $279.18.

Salesforce Trading Up 2.8%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $186.27 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $163.52 and a 1 year high of $296.05. The firm has a market cap of $152.41 billion, a PE ratio of 23.85, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $186.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $218.91.

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

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. This is a positive change from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.54%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 19th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. The trade was a 23.11% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

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

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.

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