Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Trading Up 2%
Shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report) rose 2% on Friday . The company traded as high as $300.10 and last traded at $299.96. Approximately 1,158,602 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 79% from the average daily volume of 5,631,770 shares. The stock had previously closed at $294.14.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research upgraded Salesforce from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $315.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, December 18th. Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $345.00 target price (up from $325.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Salesforce from $285.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Salesforce from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $290.00 to $350.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 21st. Finally, KeyCorp assumed coverage on Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They set a “sector weight” rating for the company. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $304.97.
Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Salesforce
Salesforce Price Performance
The stock has a market capitalization of $292.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.88, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $297.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $256.15.
Salesforce (NYSE:CRM – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $9.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 10.42% and a net margin of 11.87%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.01 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Salesforce Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.52%.
Insider Transactions at Salesforce
In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.42, for a total transaction of $4,581,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,981,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,964,707,719.72. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.42, for a total transaction of $4,581,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,981,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,964,707,719.72. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Brian Millham sold 24,453 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.08, for a total value of $7,386,762.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 913,175 shares of company stock valued at $262,199,146. Corporate insiders own 3.70% of the company’s stock.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce
A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 83,626,413 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $22,005,454,000 after buying an additional 1,240,821 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 45,509,345 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $9,091,832,000 after buying an additional 391,648 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,561,325 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,147,402,000 after buying an additional 457,463 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 19,003,836 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,519,719,000 after buying an additional 149,012 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 14,921,042 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,926,323,000 after buying an additional 752,566 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.
Salesforce Company Profile
Salesforce, Inc provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology that brings companies and customers together worldwide. The company’s service includes sales to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, gain insights through analytics and artificial intelligence, and deliver quotes, contracts, and invoices; and service that enables companies to deliver trusted and highly personalized customer support at scale.
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