Brokerages Set Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) PT at $377.63

Shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-two ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation, thirty-one have given a buy recommendation and four have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $376.84.

CRM has been the topic of several recent research reports. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 6th. TD Cowen raised Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $380.00 to $400.00 in a report on Friday, January 17th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price target on Salesforce from $315.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded Salesforce from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $440.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, CFO Amy E. Weaver sold 6,221 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $328.18, for a total value of $2,041,607.78. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 46,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,342,415. The trade was a 11.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 436 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.28, for a total transaction of $144,874.08. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 7,057 shares in the company, valued at $2,344,899.96. This trade represents a 5.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,117,641 shares of company stock worth $386,408,308. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CRM. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,007,404 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $13,432,855,000 after purchasing an additional 864,193 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,955,353 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $6,656,078,000 after buying an additional 175,035 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 12,453,872 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,163,703,000 after acquiring an additional 177,321 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Salesforce by 18.3% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 11,224,927 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,752,830,000 after acquiring an additional 1,736,667 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,599,867,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Salesforce Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of CRM stock opened at $324.19 on Monday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $310.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.31. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $335.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $304.66. Salesforce has a 1 year low of $212.00 and a 1 year high of $369.00.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by ($0.03). Salesforce had a return on equity of 12.34% and a net margin of 15.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.35 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.62 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Salesforce will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 18th were given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 18th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 26.32%.

Salesforce Company 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.