Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. Purchases New Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Salesforce beat quarterly expectations with $3.81 EPS (vs. $3.05 est.) and $11.20B revenue (up 12.1% YoY) and set FY2027 EPS guidance of 13.110–13.190.
• The board approved a $25 billion share buyback and raised the quarterly dividend to $0.44 (annualized $1.76, ~1.0% yield), signaling management confidence and a push to return capital to shareholders.
• Institutional and insider buying increased: Wealth Enhancement Trust Services opened a ~7,082-share (~$1.88M) position, large funds boosted holdings, and directors made personal purchases—while institutional ownership stands at about 80.43%.

Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 7,082 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,876,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 159.0% during the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,325,206 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $4,106,255,000 after purchasing an additional 10,636,161 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter worth about $484,852,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 285.4% in the 3rd quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 2,487,627 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $589,568,000 after buying an additional 1,842,117 shares during the last quarter. Generation Investment Management LLP bought a new position in Salesforce during the third quarter valued at about $431,157,000. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its position in Salesforce by 9.4% during the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 20,051,119 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $4,753,519,000 after buying an additional 1,729,440 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $182.13 on Friday. The company's 50-day moving average price is $187.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $224.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick 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 $296.05. The company has a market cap of $168.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.32, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 17.96% and a return on equity of 15.38%. Salesforce's revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.78 earnings per share. Salesforce has set its FY 2027 guidance at 13.110-13.190 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 3.110-3.130 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is an increase from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.54%.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Key Headlines Impacting Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BTIG reaffirmed a "buy" on CRM and set a $255 price target (≈40% upside vs. current levels), giving institutional backing that can support further upside. BTIG Reaffirms Buy on Salesforce
• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce launched Headless 360, positioning its full platform as infrastructure for AI agents — a strategic move that could broaden addressable market and accelerate enterprise AI spending across the Salesforce stack. Salesforce launches Headless 360
• Positive Sentiment: Customer wins/expansions show traction for Agentforce 360 — travel platform Engine expanded use of AI agents and Slack, automating ~50% of chat cases, cutting handle time ~15% and improving satisfaction, which supports revenue upsell potential for contact-center automation. Engine expands Agentforce 360
• Positive Sentiment: Data 360 adoption shows strong momentum (reported ~200% ARR growth), highlighting a potential new growth driver for larger enterprise contracts and higher‑value deals. CRM's Data 360 Momentum Builds
• Neutral Sentiment: Software-sector momentum helped lift CRM amid a broad bounce in the IGV ETF; sector flows can amplify CRM moves but are not company‑specific fundamentals. Software Stocks Finish Week Hot
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst and media bullishness (e.g., opinion pieces expressing strong conviction) supports sentiment but is not new fundamental data; it can sustain momentum if paired with continued execution. Why I Have Strong Conviction In This Stock
• Negative Sentiment: A recent CMSWire review of Agentforce highlights strengths but also gaps versus rivals (implementation complexity and feature gaps in some areas), a reminder that competitive execution and product parity risk could temper adoption speed. Salesforce Agentforce Contact Center Review

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Salesforce from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, December 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $281.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Wedbush reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $375.00 price objective 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 given a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $279.18.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 13,689 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $194.58 per share, with a total value of $500,265.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company's stock.

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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