1900 Wealth Management LLC Makes New Investment in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

1900 Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 969 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $255,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.1% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 11,195,108 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,270,144,000 after buying an additional 121,436 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.4% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,251,891 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,064,978,000 after buying an additional 19,888 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 7.1% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,678,330 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $948,676,000 after buying an additional 309,881 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1,254.7% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,483,670 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $916,693,000 after buying an additional 3,226,512 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 16.1% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,198,494 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $648,591,000 after buying an additional 444,652 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CRM. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $285.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $350.00 price objective (up from $325.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, April 12th. TheStreet raised shares of Salesforce from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, KeyCorp started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, March 21st. They set a “sector weight” rating on the stock. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $310.61.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 2,425 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.15, for a total value of $662,388.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 5,856 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,599,566.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.79, for a total transaction of $4,211,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,671,166 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,838,726,701.14. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 2,425 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.15, for a total value of $662,388.75. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 5,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,599,566.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 616,589 shares of company stock worth $181,071,306 in the last three months. 3.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Trading Up 1.0 %

Salesforce stock opened at $276.63 on Wednesday. Salesforce, Inc. has a 12-month low of $190.57 and a 12-month high of $318.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $268.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $296.91 and a 200 day moving average of $263.28.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 9.52%.

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.