Cooper Financial Group Boosts Stock Position in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Cooper Financial Group raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 28.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,040 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,322 shares during the period. Cooper Financial Group’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,589,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,420,381,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 125,717.4% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,260,412 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,360,428,000 after acquiring an additional 10,252,257 shares in the last quarter. Starboard Value LP purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $401,215,000. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the second quarter valued at approximately $352,498,000. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 99.7% in the second quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 3,196,861 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $675,370,000 after purchasing an additional 1,595,733 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.52% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Salesforce from $260.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Salesforce from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $315.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, December 18th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Salesforce from $290.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. TheStreet raised Salesforce from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $304.32.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of CRM traded down $0.62 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $307.77. 3,779,208 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,638,843. The company has a market cap of $298.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 73.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.28. 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 company’s 50-day moving average price is $291.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $249.58. Salesforce, Inc. has a 52-week low of $185.58 and a 52-week high of $318.71.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $9.29 billion for 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 business’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.01 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 13th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $251.61, for a total transaction of $3,774,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,896,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,496,414,327.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $251.61, for a total transaction of $3,774,150.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 13,896,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,496,414,327.26. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Brian Millham sold 293,965 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $82,310,200.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 1,169,296 shares of company stock worth $326,477,726. 3.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.