HB Wealth Management LLC Decreases Holdings in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

HB Wealth Management LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 8.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,763 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 1,279 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $3,622,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 463.1% during the second quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,283 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $694,000 after purchasing an additional 2,700 shares in the last quarter. Pointe Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 370.0% in the second quarter. Pointe Capital Management LLC now owns 1,551 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $328,000 after buying an additional 1,221 shares in the last quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 2.9% in the third quarter. Walkner Condon Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,633 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $534,000 after buying an additional 74 shares in the last quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 72.3% in the third quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 29,481 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,978,000 after buying an additional 12,371 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter worth about $341,000. 77.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CRM. JMP Securities raised their price target on shares of Salesforce from $293.00 to $342.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Bank of America raised 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. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $285.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Argus raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $290.00 to $354.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $290.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $304.32.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM traded down $0.62 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $307.77. 3,779,208 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,638,843. Salesforce, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $185.58 and a fifty-two week high of $318.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $298.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 73.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.28. The business’s 50 day moving average is $292.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $250.17. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced 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 business had revenue of $9.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 11.87% and a return on equity of 10.42%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.01 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 9.52%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 216 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.71, for a total transaction of $60,201.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,869 shares in the company, valued at approximately $799,618.99. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Salesforce news, insider Srinivas Tallapragada sold 10,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.70, for a total value of $2,657,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 59,861 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,905,067.70. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 216 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.71, for a total transaction of $60,201.36. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $799,618.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 1,169,296 shares of company stock worth $326,477,726. Company insiders own 3.70% of the company’s stock.

About Salesforce

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.