Ritholtz Wealth Management Raises Stock Holdings in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,721 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 414 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $2,821,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Fairfield Bush & CO. boosted its position in Salesforce by 8.7% during the first quarter. Fairfield Bush & CO. now owns 4,468 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $949,000 after purchasing an additional 357 shares in the last quarter. Roundview Capital LLC boosted its position in Salesforce by 18.8% during the first quarter. Roundview Capital LLC now owns 24,037 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,104,000 after purchasing an additional 3,809 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its position in Salesforce by 42.8% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 621 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $132,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. Ergoteles LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the first quarter valued at approximately $455,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 21.3% in the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 860,950 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $182,797,000 after acquiring an additional 151,440 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CRM has been the topic of several research reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded Salesforce from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $290.00 to $350.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 21st. Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and issued a $345.00 target price (up previously from $325.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. JMP Securities raised their target price on Salesforce from $293.00 to $342.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. TheStreet upgraded Salesforce from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Salesforce from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $315.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, December 18th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $304.32.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE CRM traded down $0.20 during trading on Thursday, reaching $301.18. The stock had a trading volume of 4,876,082 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,764,980. Salesforce, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $187.31 and a fifty-two week high of $318.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $294.19 and its 200-day moving average price is $252.10. The company has a market cap of $292.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 71.75, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.28.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $9.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 10.42% and a net margin of 11.87%. Salesforce’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.01 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.52%.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.54, for a total value of $4,733,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,311,166 shares in the company, valued at $4,200,205,319.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.54, for a total transaction of $4,733,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,311,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,200,205,319.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 4,200 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $306.50, for a total value of $1,287,300.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 105,837 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,439,040.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 913,507 shares of company stock worth $259,814,813. Company insiders own 3.70% 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.