Roth Mkm Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by investment analysts at Roth Mkm in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $335.00 price target on the CRM provider’s stock. Roth Mkm’s price target points to a potential upside of 28.71% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Macquarie reduced their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $330.00 to $275.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 31st. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $345.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Salesforce from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 30th. DA Davidson boosted their price target on Salesforce from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on Salesforce from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $301.71.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of CRM traded up $1.38 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $260.28. The company had a trading volume of 8,409,907 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,572,214. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $253.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $271.63. 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 company has a market capitalization of $252.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.86, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.29. Salesforce has a 12-month low of $193.68 and a 12-month high of $318.71.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $9.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 15.30% and a return on equity of 11.57%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.63 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Salesforce will post 7.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 428,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $233.17 per share, for a total transaction of $99,796,760.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 3,914,309 shares in the company, valued at $912,699,429.53. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Parker Harris sold 4,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.90, for a total transaction of $1,104,180.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 117,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,912,044.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 428,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $233.17 per share, for a total transaction of $99,796,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,914,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $912,699,429.53. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 112,964 shares of company stock worth $27,956,647 over the last quarter. 3.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Salesforce in the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,762,331,000. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 76.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 13,708,615 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,607,493,000 after purchasing an additional 5,935,973 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 26.9% in the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,376,536 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,329,925,000 after purchasing an additional 3,044,611 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 1st quarter valued at $910,220,000. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Salesforce during the 1st quarter valued at $874,748,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

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.