Savvy Advisors Inc. Boosts Stock Holdings in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Savvy Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 19.4% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,183 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 517 shares during the period. Savvy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $871,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CRM. Capital Research Global Investors raised 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 in the first quarter valued at approximately $910,220,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Salesforce in the first quarter valued at approximately $874,748,000. Veritas Asset Management LLP acquired a new position in Salesforce during the third quarter valued at approximately $733,805,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in Salesforce by 48.3% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,906,877 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,518,658,000 after buying an additional 1,922,674 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CRM. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $345.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, September 20th. 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, August 26th. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Loop Capital reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $270.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Nine 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $314.80.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, insider Sabastian Niles sold 2,484 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $244.81, for a total transaction of $608,108.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 828 shares in the company, valued at $202,702.68. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 413 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.29, for a total value of $117,824.77. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 7,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,998,741.74. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Sabastian Niles sold 2,484 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $244.81, for a total value of $608,108.04. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 828 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,702.68. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 144,373 shares of company stock valued at $41,250,680. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $344.61 on Tuesday. Salesforce, Inc. has a 12 month low of $211.76 and a 12 month high of $345.15. The company has a market cap of $329.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.29. The business’s 50 day moving average is $279.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $264.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $9.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 12.01% and a net margin of 15.44%. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.63 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.55 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 18th were paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 18th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.83%.

Salesforce 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.