Wealth Effects LLC Acquires Shares of 885 Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Wealth Effects LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 885 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $233,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 71,709 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $18,870,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. Sapient Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,034,000. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $51,084,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1,254.7% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,483,670 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $916,693,000 after acquiring an additional 3,226,512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cedrus LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $342,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.77, for a total value of $4,046,550.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,791,166 shares in the company, valued at $3,720,442,851.82. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.77, for a total value of $4,046,550.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,791,166 shares in the company, valued at $3,720,442,851.82. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Srinivas Tallapragada sold 2,890 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.32, for a total transaction of $893,934.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 60,416 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,687,877.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 907,375 shares of company stock worth $262,519,346. 3.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Salesforce Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of CRM traded down $3.65 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $295.50. 907,914 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,480,555. The firm has a market cap of $286.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 70.45, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.28. Salesforce, Inc. has a 12-month low of $190.45 and a 12-month high of $318.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $298.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $258.37.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.06. Salesforce had a net margin of 11.87% and a return on equity of 10.42%. The company had revenue of $9.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.01 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.52%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CRM has been the topic of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Argus lifted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $290.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $305.77.

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.