Needham & Company LLC Reiterates “Buy” Rating for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) in a report published on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $345.00 price target on the CRM provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on CRM. UBS Group increased their target price on Salesforce from $285.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Piper Sandler reissued a neutral rating and issued a $285.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Truist Financial reissued a buy rating and issued a $360.00 target price (up previously from $275.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Salesforce from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $350.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $307.87.

Salesforce Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $271.85 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $263.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.73, a PEG ratio of 2.13 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. Salesforce has a 12-month low of $190.57 and a 12-month high of $318.71. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $297.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $260.97.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (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 analysts’ expectations of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 10.42% and a net margin of 11.87%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.01 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Salesforce will post 7.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.59%. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 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 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. Also, insider Srinivas Tallapragada sold 10,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $284.11, for a total transaction of $2,841,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 60,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,323,891.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 628,184 shares of company stock worth $184,794,698. Company insiders own 3.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Plimoth Trust Co. LLC now owns 22,143 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,669,000 after purchasing an additional 496 shares in the last quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 19.3% during the 1st quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC now owns 7,075 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,134,000 after purchasing an additional 1,143 shares in the last quarter. West Oak Capital LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 106.2% in the 1st quarter. West Oak Capital LLC now owns 1,495 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $450,000 after acquiring an additional 770 shares during the period. InTrack Investment Management Inc grew its stake in Salesforce by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. InTrack Investment Management Inc now owns 5,144 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,549,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the period. Finally, Quattro Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 18,911.4% in the 1st quarter. Quattro Financial Advisors LLC now owns 50,000 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $15,059,000 after acquiring an additional 49,737 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.