White Pine Capital LLC Purchases 222 Shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

White Pine Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 15.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,681 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 222 shares during the quarter. White Pine Capital LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $442,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cerity Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 1,254.7% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,483,670 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $916,693,000 after purchasing an additional 3,226,512 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 23,653.7% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,406,220 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $370,033,000 after acquiring an additional 1,400,300 shares in the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 47.5% in the 3rd quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 2,499,630 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $506,875,000 after acquiring an additional 804,634 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 330.0% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 935,885 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $189,779,000 after acquiring an additional 718,245 shares in the last quarter. Finally, J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter valued at about $114,521,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Brian Millham sold 24,453 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.08, for a total transaction of $7,386,762.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.05, for a total value of $4,275,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,656,166 shares in the company, valued at $3,892,690,118.30. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Brian Millham sold 24,453 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were 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 three months, insiders have sold 620,793 shares of company stock worth $182,177,918. Insiders own 3.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Bank of America boosted their target price on Salesforce from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Salesforce from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $365.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $342.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $310.61.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM traded up $1.15 during trading on Friday, reaching $274.29. 3,754,585 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,162,527. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Salesforce, Inc. has a 12-month low of $190.76 and a 12-month high of $318.71. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $295.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $264.30. The stock has a market cap of $266.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 65.31, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.28.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. Salesforce had a return on equity of 10.42% and a net margin of 11.87%. The firm had revenue of $9.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.01 EPS. Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. 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.