Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Has $6.15 Million Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management sharply reduced its Salesforce stake by 94.4% in the fourth quarter, selling 388,661 shares and ending with 23,201 shares worth about $6.15 million.
• Salesforce continues to draw a mix of bullish and cautious analyst views: the stock has a Moderate Buy consensus with an average target of $274.12, but Bank of America recently initiated an Underperform rating with a $160 target.
• The company reported solid recent fundamentals, including Q4 EPS of $3.81 versus estimates of $3.05 and 12.1% revenue growth, while also boosting its quarterly dividend to $0.44 and authorizing a $25 billion share buyback.

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lessened its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 94.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 23,201 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 388,661 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.'s holdings in Salesforce were worth $6,146,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Aspire Growth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Aspire Growth Partners LLC now owns 3,355 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $795,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Byrne Asset Management LLC now owns 4,331 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,147,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Mathes Company Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Mathes Company Inc. now owns 12,558 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,976,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 14,943 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $3,548,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Beacon Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,372 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $325,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce announced an expanded collaboration with Cint to deliver next-generation AI-powered support through Slack, reinforcing the company’s push into agentic enterprise workflows and AI-driven automation. Cint and Salesforce to Deliver the Next Generation of AI-Powered Support
• Positive Sentiment: Several analyst- and media-driven pieces highlighted Salesforce as an attractive AI and software value play, with commentary pointing to strong upside potential and expectations that Q1 results may benefit from continued digital transformation and generative AI adoption. Salesforce Likely to Beat Q1 Earnings Estimates: Time to Buy the Stock?
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street price-target articles continue to suggest meaningful upside for CRM, with analysts’ average target implying a large gain from current levels and some firms still keeping bullish ratings. Does Salesforce (CRM) Have the Potential to Rally 53.21% as Wall Street Analysts Expect?
• Neutral Sentiment: Salesforce granted 64,296 RSUs to 27 employees tied to the Cimulate acquisition; this is routine retention-related equity compensation and is not likely to materially move the stock on its own. Salesforce Grants Equity Awards to Cimulate Under Its Inducement Equity Incentive Plan
• Neutral Sentiment: Investors are also focused on Salesforce’s upcoming earnings release and expected post-earnings volatility, which adds uncertainty but no clear directional catalyst yet. Here's How Much Traders Expect Salesforce Stock Could Move After Earnings
• Negative Sentiment: UBS flagged a mixed enterprise software spending backdrop and said it sees limited signs of near-term acceleration in bookings, which may be weighing on sentiment into earnings. Salesforce faces tough enterprise software backdrop heading into earnings, says UBS
• Negative Sentiment: Bank of America reiterated an Underperform rating with a $160 target, signaling that some analysts remain cautious on the stock despite Salesforce’s strong market position. BofA Maintains Underperform Rating on Salesforce (CRM)

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial set a $280.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Roth Mkm decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $395.00 to $325.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, May 18th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $160.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Northland Securities decreased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $267.00 to $229.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $274.12.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the acquisition, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was 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 owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 3.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Trading Up 2.3%

Shares of CRM stock opened at $180.32 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $182.26 and a 200-day moving average of $212.98. 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 12-month low of $163.52 and a 12-month high of $280.74. The firm has a market cap of $147.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.09, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.78 EPS. Salesforce's quarterly revenue 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 firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued a $0.44 dividend. This is a boost from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. Salesforce's payout ratio is 22.54%.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a stock 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's management believes its shares are 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.

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