Aviance Capital Partners LLC Sells 1,495 Shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Aviance Capital Partners LLC lowered its position in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 20.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,921 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 1,495 shares during the period. Aviance Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,558,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Graypoint LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 10,504 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,764,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp now owns 10,377 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,730,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the last quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,295 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $341,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,294 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $604,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MV Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Salesforce by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,045 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $275,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In related news, CFO Amy E. Weaver sold 942 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Monday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.46, for a total value of $287,743.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 39,416 shares in the company, valued at $12,040,011.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Salesforce news, CFO Amy E. Weaver sold 942 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.46, for a total transaction of $287,743.32. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 39,416 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,040,011.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Srinivas Tallapragada sold 10,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.93, for a total value of $2,889,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 60,416 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,455,994.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 619,993 shares of company stock worth $181,241,324 in the last 90 days. 3.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CRM. Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $350.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $345.00 target price (up from $325.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Wedbush raised their price target on Salesforce from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Argus upped their price objective on Salesforce from $290.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $310.61.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.7 %

CRM stock traded up $1.97 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $275.63. 3,722,938 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,550,575. Salesforce, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $193.68 and a fifty-two week high of $318.71. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $293.74 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $267.47. The company has a market capitalization of $266.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 65.63, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $9.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 10.42% and a net margin of 11.87%. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.01 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.52%.

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.