Arbor Trust Wealth Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Arbor Trust Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 6,292 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the period. Arbor Trust Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $1,656,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Avior Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 18,246 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,801,000 after buying an additional 438 shares in the last quarter. Allen Capital Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $243,000. Mathes Company Inc. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Mathes Company Inc. now owns 2,825 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $743,000 after buying an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 49.5% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 481,024 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $126,577,000 after buying an additional 159,334 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Everence Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. now owns 29,160 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $7,673,000 after buying an additional 880 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.54, for a total transaction of $4,733,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,311,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,200,205,319.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 216 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.71, for a total value of $60,201.36. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $799,618.99. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.54, for a total transaction of $4,733,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,311,166 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,200,205,319.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 897,375 shares of company stock valued at $260,206,096 in the last three months. 3.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $365.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Tuesday. Citigroup boosted their price target on Salesforce from $265.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 26th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Salesforce from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $350.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Salesforce from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. Nine 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $307.87.

Salesforce Stock Performance

CRM traded up $4.51 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $277.41. 7,609,935 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,727,201. Salesforce, Inc. has a 1 year low of $190.57 and a 1 year high of $318.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $269.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.28. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $298.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $260.26.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $9.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 11.87% and a return on equity of 10.42%. Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.01 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.52%.

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.