Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Raises Holdings in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 5,964,702 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 57,825 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,632,599,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 20.8% in the 1st quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 26,451 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $7,967,000 after purchasing an additional 4,553 shares in the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 21.4% in the 1st quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,954 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,203,000 after acquiring an additional 2,461 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 25.8% during the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 16,227 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,887,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327 shares during the period. Cadence Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the first quarter valued at $202,000. Finally, JT Stratford LLC increased its stake in Salesforce by 54.9% in the first quarter. JT Stratford LLC now owns 2,641 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $795,000 after purchasing an additional 936 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Salesforce from $295.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $315.00 price target (up from $300.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Cfra set a $343.00 target price on Salesforce in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $326.19.

Salesforce Price Performance

Shares of CRM opened at $325.70 on Thursday. Salesforce, Inc. has a 52 week low of $212.00 and a 52 week high of $348.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a market cap of $311.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.64, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $291.21 and a 200-day moving average of $267.72.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The CRM provider reported $2.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $9.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 15.44% and a return on equity of 12.01%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.63 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.55 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 18th were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 18th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.49%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.83%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, insider Sabastian Niles sold 2,484 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $244.81, for a total transaction of $608,108.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 828 shares in the company, valued at approximately $202,702.68. The trade was a 75.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Brian Millham sold 60,522 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total value of $18,156,600.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 136,117 shares of company stock worth $39,085,562 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 3.20% 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.