Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Downgraded to “Hold” at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Thursday, Zacks.com reports.

CRM has been the subject of a number of other reports. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on Salesforce from $234.00 to $236.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Truist Financial reissued a buy rating and issued a $315.00 price target (up from $300.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a buy rating and issued a $345.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Salesforce from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $310.74.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM opened at $288.10 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $261.93 and a 200 day moving average of $263.61. Salesforce has a 52-week low of $193.68 and a 52-week high of $318.71. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a market cap of $279.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.82, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.30.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The CRM provider reported $2.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $9.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 12.01% and a net margin of 15.44%. Salesforce’s revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.63 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 7.55 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 18th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 18th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.56%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, insider Parker Harris sold 4,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.90, for a total transaction of $1,070,580.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 116,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,745,045.70. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Salesforce news, COO Brian Millham sold 8,427 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $2,359,560.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 4,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.90, for a total value of $1,070,580.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 116,693 shares in the company, valued at $29,745,045.70. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 80,612 shares of company stock worth $21,283,087. 3.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 66.3% during the fourth quarter. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management now owns 1,567 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $412,000 after acquiring an additional 625 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 7,160 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,983,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. XN LP raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 24.2% during the second quarter. XN LP now owns 464,489 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $119,420,000 after acquiring an additional 90,616 shares during the last quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 27.5% during the third quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 11,999 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,284,000 after acquiring an additional 2,589 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&G Plc acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,178,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

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.