Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Receives “Buy” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) in a research note published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $400.00 price target on the CRM provider’s stock.

CRM has been the topic of several other reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Loop Capital lowered their target price on Salesforce from $360.00 to $330.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $340.00 to $430.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $450.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $440.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, thirty-two have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $365.32.

Salesforce Trading Down 4.1 %

Shares of NYSE:CRM opened at $294.80 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $330.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $306.89. The company has a market capitalization of $282.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.11. Salesforce has a 52-week low of $212.00 and a 52-week high of $369.00.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued 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). Salesforce had a return on equity of 12.34% and a net margin of 15.96%. The business had revenue of $9.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.35 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.62 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 18th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 18th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 26.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 436 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.28, for a total transaction of $144,874.08. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 7,057 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,344,899.96. The trade was a 5.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Miguel Milano sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $141,050.26. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,864 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,805,936.08. The trade was a 7.24 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,102,572 shares of company stock valued at $381,283,706 over the last 90 days. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Salesforce during the fourth quarter worth $3,599,867,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 926.4% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 4,256,211 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,422,979,000 after acquiring an additional 3,841,521 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,173,564,000. Veritas Asset Management LLP bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter valued at about $733,805,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 42.5% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,791,015 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,604,770,000 after purchasing an additional 2,325,156 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.