Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Sells 1,031,007 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA sold 1,031,007 shares of Salesforce in Q4, trimming its stake by 26.6% to 2,844,232 shares worth about $753.5 million (0.30% ownership).
• Salesforce's board authorized a $25 billion share buyback and the company raised its quarterly dividend to $0.44 (annualized $1.76, ~1.1% yield).
• Salesforce beat expectations for the quarter with $3.81 EPS vs. $3.05 expected and $11.20 billion revenue (up 12.1% YoY), and set FY2027 EPS guidance of $13.110–13.190.

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA trimmed its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 26.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,844,232 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 1,031,007 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned 0.30% of Salesforce worth $753,465,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Marquette Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Dorato Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were bought at an average price of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, the director owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.70, for a total value of $929,259.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,299 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong underlying fundamentals: recent coverage highlights Salesforce's trailing‑12‑month revenue (~$41.5B), solid profitability (77.6% gross margin, ~13.9% profit margin), nearly $15B operating cash flow and $7.8 diluted EPS — all arguments that the company’s core business can justify a higher multiple over time. Salesforce Stock Is Dropping Today: What's Going On?
• Positive Sentiment: Ecosystem wins / product integrations: Redpanda’s new real‑time, bidirectional connectors to Salesforce position CRM more as a central data hub — a feature that can increase platform stickiness and justify long‑term value capture. Salesforce Connectors From Redpanda Put Focus On CRM Valuation Gap
• Neutral Sentiment: Options activity signaling volatility: recent options flow has drawn attention — heightened options interest can presage larger moves (up or down) around earnings, product news or macro catalysts but is not a directional confirmation on its own. Is the Options Market Predicting a Spike in Salesforce Stock?
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation debate / buy/hold view: some analysts note CRM is down sharply YTD (~35%) and argue the pullback plus ongoing AI adoption and improving growth make it a hold at current prices — this frames the decline as a potential buying opportunity for longer‑term investors. Salesforce Plunges 35% YTD: Should You Buy, Sell or Hold the Stock?
• Negative Sentiment: Sector shock from new AI models: reports about Anthropic’s latest model and broader headlines have sparked a selloff across software stocks, pressuring CRM as investors rotate toward AI infrastructure and hardware beneficiaries. Anthropic's Latest AI Model Sends a Shockwave Through Software Stocks
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/strategy commentary: high‑profile commentary (e.g., Jim Cramer) indicates a renewed “buy hardware, sell software” rotation, which can keep downward pressure on valuation multiples for large software vendors like Salesforce. Cramer explains the divergence in tech stocks – and why software may continue to lag
• Negative Sentiment: Stock price technical and momentum concerns: coverage noting three‑year lows and a steep YTD decline highlight momentum weakness that can perpetuate selling until clearer positive catalysts emerge. Salesforce stock just crashed to 3-year lows; Here's why
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive/product signals: items about alternatives (e.g., Slackbot as a CRM interface) and specialized Salesforce‑based solutions could be read as both ecosystem expansion and potential competitive friction for certain use cases. Slack instead of Salesforce: Slackbot becomes CRM interface

Salesforce Stock Performance

CRM opened at $164.99 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $152.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $163.52 and a 52-week high of $296.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. The business's fifty day moving average is $189.91 and its 200-day moving average is $226.46.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.78 EPS. Salesforce's quarterly revenue 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. Sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This is a positive change from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio is 22.54%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on CRM shares. KeyCorp cut their price objective on Salesforce from $400.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, December 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $375.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $280.21.

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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