Cadence Bank Buys New Position in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Cadence Bank bought a new stake in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 672 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc grew its holdings in Salesforce by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 35,220 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $9,268,000 after buying an additional 257 shares during the period. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management grew its holdings in Salesforce by 66.3% in the 4th quarter. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management now owns 1,567 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $412,000 after buying an additional 625 shares during the period. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. now owns 7,881 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,206,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 5,951,415 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,566,055,000 after purchasing an additional 18,397 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 32.6% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 789,525 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $207,756,000 after purchasing an additional 194,224 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Price Performance

CRM stock traded up $6.14 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $262.66. 6,126,544 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,815,638. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $251.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $275.37. Salesforce, Inc. has a one year low of $193.68 and a one year high of $318.71. The company has a market cap of $254.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 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.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 29th. The CRM provider reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.38 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $9.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.15 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 11.57% and a net margin of 15.30%. Salesforce’s revenue was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.15 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 9th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 9th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.61%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is presently 28.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CRM. DA Davidson decreased their target price on Salesforce from $300.00 to $230.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Salesforce from $330.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 30th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $342.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Wedbush decreased their price target on Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $292.79.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.78, for a total transaction of $105,637.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 6,431 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,644,921.18. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.90, for a total value of $4,303,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,512,327 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,589,786,616.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.78, for a total value of $105,637.14. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 6,431 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,644,921.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 324,242 shares of company stock worth $86,279,221. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.