Whipplewood Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 185 Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 185 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $62,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CRM. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 27.4% during the third quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 512 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $140,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management boosted its stake in Salesforce by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 8,968 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,455,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. HM Payson & Co. grew its holdings in Salesforce by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 4,112 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,125,000 after buying an additional 76 shares during the period. Baron Silver Stevens Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 12.6% during the 3rd quarter. Baron Silver Stevens Financial Advisors LLC now owns 891 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $244,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth about $78,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Northland Securities restated an “outperform” rating and set a $440.00 price objective (up from $400.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Salesforce from $440.00 to $400.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Salesforce from $425.00 to $375.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $415.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, thirty-two have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $365.32.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $297.63 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $329.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $307.21. Salesforce, Inc. has a 52-week low of $212.00 and a 52-week high of $369.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $284.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.95, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.31.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.44 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $9.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.35 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 15.96% and a return on equity of 12.34%. The business’s revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.62 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 18th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 18th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.32%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, Director G Mason Morfit sold 722,300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.11, for a total transaction of $249,995,253.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 3,192,009 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,104,786,234.99. This represents a 18.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 317,105 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $346.78, for a total transaction of $109,965,671.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,162,457 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,217,696,838.46. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,102,572 shares of company stock valued at $381,283,706. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.