Marietta Wealth Management LLC Cuts Stock Position in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Marietta Wealth Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 25,057 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 363 shares during the quarter. Marietta Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $6,593,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 2.9% in the third quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,633 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $534,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares in the last quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $214,000. Riversedge Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 21.7% in the third quarter. Riversedge Advisors LLC now owns 2,353 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $477,000 after purchasing an additional 420 shares in the last quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp acquired a new position in Salesforce in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,499,000. Finally, Lone Pine Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 47.5% in the third quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 2,499,630 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $506,875,000 after purchasing an additional 804,634 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.01, for a total value of $4,110,150.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,761,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,770,697,095.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.01, for a total transaction of $4,110,150.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 13,761,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,770,697,095.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 216 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.71, for a total value of $60,201.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $799,618.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 897,375 shares of company stock valued at $260,206,096 in the last three months. Insiders own 3.70% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CRM traded up $5.43 on Tuesday, hitting $278.33. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,596,244 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,670,159. Salesforce, Inc. has a 12 month low of $190.57 and a 12 month high of $318.71. The company has a market capitalization of $269.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.44, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 stock’s 50-day moving average is $298.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $260.26.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 9.52%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on CRM shares. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $350.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $350.00 target price (up from $325.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $345.00 target price (up from $325.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $342.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $307.87.

Salesforce 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.