Heartland Bank & Trust Co Has $347,000 Holdings in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Heartland Bank & Trust Co lessened its position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 77.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,309 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 4,498 shares during the quarter. Heartland Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $347,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 25,668 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,582,000 after buying an additional 3,102 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,827 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $611,000 after buying an additional 205 shares during the period. Bison Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Bison Wealth LLC now owns 2,234 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $747,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,958 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $807,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, United Bank lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter. United Bank now owns 10,198 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,781,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group cut their target price on Salesforce from $260.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Salesforce from $235.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price objective on Salesforce from $223.00 to $194.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued 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 $279.18.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Laura Alber purchased 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 directly owned 9,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,854,347.40. This represents a 36.94% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director David Blair Kirk purchased 2,570 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $194.62 per share, for a total transaction of $500,173.40. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 13,689 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,664,153.18. This represents a 23.11% 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 Stock Performance

CRM opened at $185.52 on Tuesday. Salesforce Inc. has a 52-week low of $163.52 and a 52-week high of $296.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $151.80 billion, a PE ratio of 23.75, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.14. 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 business’s 50-day simple moving average is $186.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $220.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The CRM provider reported $3.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.05 by $0.76. The firm had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.18 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 15.38% and a net margin of 17.96%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior 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. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce Inc. will post 9.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th were given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This is an increase from Salesforce’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.54%.

Salesforce announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Monday, March 16th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes 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 board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Trending Headlines about Salesforce

Here are the key news stories impacting Salesforce this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Salesforce deepens ChatGPT integrations to automate CRM workflows — this expands generative-AI functionality inside Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, which could accelerate adoption and drive higher ARPU for enterprise customers. Salesforce deepens AI integration with ChatGPT for CRM workflows
• Positive Sentiment: New Salesforce–Google Cloud AI workflow integrations broaden partnership reach (including SMB tools), which should help Salesforce embed into Google Cloud customers and compete on analytics/AI features. Partnership breadth is constructive for long-term enterprise wins. Salesforce and Google Cloud unveil AI-powered workflow integrations
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst/commentary pieces flag CRM as a top long-term growth stock — bullish narratives (Zacks, MSN) emphasize strong margin profile, recurring revenue and positioning in the AI transition. That support helps sentiment after recent weakness. Why Salesforce (CRM) is a Top Growth Stock for the Long-Term
• Positive Sentiment: Competitive analysis argues Salesforce is better positioned than legacy rivals (Oracle) in the cloud+AI push — a narrative likely to attract investors rotating into software names expected to capture recurring SaaS AI spend. Salesforce vs Oracle: There’s Only One Winner In the Cloud AI Push
• Neutral Sentiment: General stock-screen coverage asks whether CRM is a buy after its pullback — useful for traders and value investors but not game-changing news on its own. Is Trending Stock Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) a Buy Now?
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader articles place Salesforce in the context of where AI economics sit (vs. semiconductors like NVDA) — important framing but indirect for near-term share moves. While NVDA Dominates Headlines, Here’s Where the Real AI Economics Are Hiding
• Negative Sentiment: Industry-wide AI spend is being debated against large tech layoffs and cost reallocation; this macro/tech-cost conversation could pressure multiples and hiring cycles for enterprise buyers. Is Big Tech’s $725B AI splurge being funded by mass layoffs?
• Negative Sentiment: Shares remain well off their 52-week high and analysts note a large YTD decline, keeping downside sensitivity if growth or AI monetization slows. Is Salesforce (CRM) Now An Opportunity After A 27.5% Year To Date Share Price Slide?

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.