WestEnd Advisors LLC Sells 5,735 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• WestEnd Advisors LLC trimmed its stake by 3.8% in Salesforce during the fourth quarter, selling 5,735 shares and leaving it with 144,820 shares valued at about $38.37 million.
• Salesforce beat quarterly expectations with $3.81 EPS vs. $3.05 estimated and $11.20 billion in revenue (up 12.1% y/y), and provided FY2027 guidance of $13.110–$13.190 EPS and Q1 guidance of $3.110–$3.130.
• The board authorized a $25 billion share buyback (about 14.1% of shares), raised the quarterly dividend to $0.44, and several directors purchased shares, signaling management confidence and stronger shareholder returns.

WestEnd Advisors LLC trimmed its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 3.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 144,820 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 5,735 shares during the quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC's holdings in Salesforce were worth $38,365,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rockland Trust Co. grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1,145.6% during the 3rd quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 13,066 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $3,097,000 after purchasing an additional 12,017 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 98.3% during the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 21,455 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $5,085,000 after purchasing an additional 10,633 shares during the last quarter. Midwest Trust Co grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Midwest Trust Co now owns 187,071 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $44,336,000 after purchasing an additional 4,233 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 15.1% during the 3rd quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 467,551 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $113,420,000 after purchasing an additional 61,270 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AGF Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 42.2% during the 3rd quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 281,054 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $66,610,000 after purchasing an additional 83,403 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.5%

NYSE:CRM opened at $182.13 on Friday. The firm's fifty day moving average is $187.87 and its 200-day moving average is $224.04. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $163.52 and a 52 week high of $296.05. The firm has a market cap of $168.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.29.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 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. The company'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. Equities analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. This is an increase from Salesforce's previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce's payout ratio is currently 22.54%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director David Blair Kirk acquired 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $194.62 per share, with a total value of $500,173.40. Following the purchase, 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 purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Laura Alber acquired 2,571 shares of Salesforce 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 completion of the purchase, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,854,347.40. The trade was a 36.94% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Corporate 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: 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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $281.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $279.18.

Salesforce 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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