William Blair Investment Management LLC Sells 190,400 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

William Blair Investment Management LLC cut its holdings in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 25.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 568,366 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 190,400 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.06% of Salesforce worth $134,703,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 20.0% in the third quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 50,920 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $12,068,000 after buying an additional 8,503 shares in the last quarter. Holderness Investments Co. increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Holderness Investments Co. now owns 3,364 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $797,000 after acquiring an additional 290 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 624,913 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $148,104,000 after acquiring an additional 18,983 shares in the last quarter. Foyston Gordon & Payne Inc bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 3rd quarter worth $4,128,000. Finally, Aprio Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Salesforce by 8.8% during the third quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,551 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $842,000 after purchasing an additional 288 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Neelie Kroes sold 3,893 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 14th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,742,271.30. The trade was a 34.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 134,662 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $234.70, for a total value of $31,605,171.40. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 139,767 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,803,314.90. This trade represents a 49.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $194.47 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The business has a fifty day moving average of $223.98 and a 200 day moving average of $238.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $182.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.27. Salesforce Inc. has a 1 year low of $174.57 and a 1 year high of $303.07.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 15.28% and a net margin of 17.96%.The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.18 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.78 earnings per share. The company’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. As a group, research analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a $0.44 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This is a positive change from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Salesforce from $257.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Evercore lowered their target price on shares of Salesforce from $360.00 to $340.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Salesforce from $365.00 to $320.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on Salesforce from $290.00 to $210.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $283.06.

Salesforce News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beat on profitability and AI traction — Non‑GAAP EPS came in at $3.81 (well above consensus) and management highlighted Agentforce/AI monetization as a growth driver, supporting the view that AI is adding commercial value. Revenue In Line With Expectations
• Positive Sentiment: Big capital‑return program — Salesforce raised its dividend and authorized a $50B buyback, signaling management confidence and improving EPS leverage if executed. That buyback is a clear near‑term support for the share price. AI Bet & Buyback
• Neutral Sentiment: Long‑term targets updated — Management lifted multiyear ambitions (targeting roughly $63B revenue by FY2030) and kept FY27 EPS guidance in a tight range; this supports the long‑term bull case but leaves near‑term pacing ambiguous. FY30 Target & Guidance
• Negative Sentiment: Near‑term guidance and metrics disappointed some — cRPO and other cloud momentum measures were only in‑line, and commentary implied a mid‑year slowdown before AI‑driven reacceleration, which hurt investor confidence. Jefferies on Near‑Term Slowdown
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst cuts and mixed ratings — Several banks trimmed price targets (examples: Sanford Bernstein, TD Cowen, RBC, BMO, Barclays, DA Davidson) or issued neutral/underperform stances, increasing short‑term selling pressure as models were reset. Analyst Revisions
• Negative Sentiment: Investor skepticism over AI impact persists — Coverage highlights that some investors still worry AI could compress SaaS economics despite management’s assurances, creating continued volatility in CRM shares. 3 Reasons Earnings Failed to Impress

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.