Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co Cuts Stock Holdings in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co cut its stake in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,181 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 204 shares during the period. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,589,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CRM. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management increased its stake in Salesforce by 66.3% during the fourth quarter. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management now owns 1,567 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $412,000 after acquiring an additional 625 shares during the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 5,951,415 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,566,055,000 after buying an additional 18,397 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in Salesforce by 32.6% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 789,525 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $207,756,000 after buying an additional 194,224 shares in the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 7,160 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,983,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the period. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the first quarter worth $2,178,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the topic of several recent research reports. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and set a $335.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Salesforce from $265.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Salesforce from $234.00 to $236.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $342.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Salesforce from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $302.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Parker Harris sold 4,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.97, for a total transaction of $1,104,474.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 117,581 shares in the company, valued at $30,920,275.57. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Salesforce news, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 428,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $233.17 per share, with a total value of $99,796,760.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 3,914,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $912,699,429.53. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 4,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.97, for a total transaction of $1,104,474.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 117,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,920,275.57. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 112,964 shares of company stock worth $27,956,647. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $252.90 on Friday. Salesforce, Inc. has a 12-month low of $193.68 and a 12-month high of $318.71. The company has a market cap of $245.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $254.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $271.20.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The CRM provider reported $2.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.20. Salesforce had a return on equity of 11.57% and a net margin of 15.30%. The company had revenue of $9.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.22 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.63 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.47 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 9th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 9th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 28.78%.

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.