Hemenway Trust Co LLC Cuts Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Hemenway Trust Co LLC trimmed its stake in Salesforce by 83.6% in Q4, selling 42,657 shares and retaining 8,373 shares worth $2.218 million.
• Salesforce beat quarterly expectations with EPS of $3.81 vs. $3.05 est. and revenue of $11.20 billion (up 12.1% YoY), and provided FY2027 EPS guidance of 13.110–13.190 and Q1 guidance of 3.110–3.130.
• The board approved a $25 billion share buyback (~14.1% of shares) and raised the quarterly dividend to $0.44, while launching AI products (Agentforce) and deeper Google/ChatGPT integrations that analysts view as catalysts amid competitive and valuation risks; consensus rating is "Moderate Buy" with a $279.18 target.

Hemenway Trust Co LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 83.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,373 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 42,657 shares during the period. Hemenway Trust Co LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $2,218,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,843,166 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $23,800,353,000 after buying an additional 270,913 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,420,657 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $11,732,966,000 after buying an additional 159,739 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,051,119 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $4,753,519,000 after buying an additional 1,729,440 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 159.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $4,106,255,000 after buying an additional 10,636,161 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 11.8% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,155,512 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,695,856,000 after buying an additional 754,116 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $187.05 on Wednesday. Salesforce Inc. has a one year low of $163.52 and a one year high of $296.05. The stock's fifty day moving average is $186.70 and its 200 day moving average is $219.76. The stock has a market cap of $153.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.05 by $0.76. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.18 billion. During the same period last year, the firm 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 anticipate that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued 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 yield of 0.9%. This is an increase from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce's payout ratio is 22.54%.

Salesforce announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to purchase up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Salesforce News Summary

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Salesforce from $398.00 to $287.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Mizuho dropped their price target on Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Salesforce from $235.00 to $210.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, BTIG Research restated a "buy" rating and issued a $255.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, April 17th. One equities research 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 given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $279.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

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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