Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Sells 388,661 Shares of Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. trimmed its position in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 94.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 23,201 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 388,661 shares during the quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $6,146,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Key Capital Management INC bought a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Legacy Bridge LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Texas Capital Bancshares Inc TX bought a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Dogwood Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 285.7% in the 4th quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 108 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $375.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, April 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $274.12.

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)

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director David Blair Kirk bought 2,570 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director directly owned 13,689 shares in the company, valued at $2,664,153.18. This trade represents a 23.11% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Laura Alber bought 2,571 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 19th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $194.58 per share, for a total transaction of $500,265.18. Following the transaction, the director owned 9,530 shares in the company, valued at $1,854,347.40. This trade represents a 36.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM opened at $180.32 on Friday. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $163.52 and a 52-week high of $280.74. 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 company has a market capitalization of $147.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a fifty day moving average of $182.26 and a 200-day moving average of $212.98.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.18 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.78 EPS. The firm’s 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. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th were given a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 9th. This is a boost from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 22.54%.

Salesforce declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, March 16th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the CRM provider to reacquire up to 14.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.