Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Up 1.7%

Shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shot up 1.7% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $280.56 and last traded at $277.41. 7,624,347 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 63% from the average session volume of 4,686,930 shares. The stock had previously closed at $272.90.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CRM. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $365.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $290.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $360.00 price target (up previously from $275.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $350.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $307.87.

Salesforce Price Performance

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $298.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $260.79. The stock has a market cap of $269.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) 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 the consensus estimate of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 11.87% and a return on equity of 10.42%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.01 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.52%.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, COO Brian Millham sold 293,965 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $82,310,200.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Salesforce news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 216 shares of the firm’s 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 in the company, valued at $799,618.99. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Brian Millham sold 293,965 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $82,310,200.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 897,375 shares of company stock worth $260,206,096 over the last three months. 3.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,420,381,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 125,717.4% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,260,412 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,360,428,000 after buying an additional 10,252,257 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 76.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 13,708,615 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,607,493,000 after buying an additional 5,935,973 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1,254.7% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,483,670 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $916,693,000 after buying an additional 3,226,512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Starboard Value LP acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $401,215,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Salesforce

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.