Vision Capital Management Inc. Increases Position in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Vision Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 0.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,725 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 117 shares during the quarter. Vision Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $5,980,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 463.1% in the 2nd quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,283 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $694,000 after acquiring an additional 2,700 shares during the period. Pointe Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 370.0% during the 2nd quarter. Pointe Capital Management LLC now owns 1,551 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $328,000 after buying an additional 1,221 shares during the last quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,633 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $534,000 after buying an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 72.3% during the 3rd quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 29,481 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,978,000 after buying an additional 12,371 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 2nd quarter worth $341,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on CRM shares. Wolfe Research upgraded Salesforce from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $315.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 18th. TheStreet upgraded Salesforce from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Salesforce from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $290.00 to $350.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 21st. Citigroup boosted their price target on Salesforce from $265.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on Salesforce from $275.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $304.32.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock opened at $305.84 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $292.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $251.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $296.66 billion, a PE ratio of 72.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.28. Salesforce, Inc. has a 1 year low of $187.31 and a 1 year high of $318.71.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $9.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 10.42% and a net margin of 11.87%. The business’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.01 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th will be given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 216 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.71, for a total value of $60,201.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,869 shares in the company, valued at $799,618.99. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 216 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.71, for a total value of $60,201.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,869 shares in the company, valued at $799,618.99. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 265,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $266.15, for a total value of $70,529,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 14,206,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,780,971,080.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 1,159,307 shares of company stock worth $324,535,513. Company insiders own 3.70% 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.