Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the forty-one ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty-nine have assigned a buy recommendation and four have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $378.86.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Salesforce from $340.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. KeyCorp upgraded Salesforce from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $440.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. Northland Capmk upgraded Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Cfra set a $343.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $405.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th.

Salesforce Stock Down 1.0 %

NYSE:CRM opened at $338.45 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $323.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.67, a PEG ratio of 3.21 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $328.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $282.86. Salesforce has a 1 year low of $212.00 and a 1 year high of $369.00.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.44 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $9.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.35 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 12.34% and a net margin of 15.96%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.62 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Salesforce will post 7.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 18th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 18th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is 26.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, insider Parker Harris sold 4,200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.75, for a total transaction of $1,141,350.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 118,514 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,206,179.50. The trade was a 3.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 7,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,998,741.74. The trade was a 5.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,198,644 shares of company stock worth $409,472,703 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Intact Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Salesforce by 63.0% in the second quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,820 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,496,000 after purchasing an additional 2,250 shares during the period. IFG Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter worth approximately $569,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 3.3% in the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 320,341 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $82,360,000 after acquiring an additional 10,235 shares during the last quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. increased its position in Salesforce by 19.4% during the 2nd quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. now owns 2,512 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $646,000 after purchasing an additional 408 shares during the period. Finally, Ascent Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in Salesforce by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 7,722 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,985,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

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.