Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 67,351 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 637 shares during the quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $17,723,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Graypoint LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 10,504 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,764,000 after buying an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp now owns 10,377 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,730,000 after buying an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,295 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $341,000 after buying an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,294 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $604,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MV Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,045 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $275,000 after buying an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on CRM shares. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $350.00 price target (up from $325.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $310.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $310.61.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.6 %

CRM stock traded up $1.67 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $278.85. The stock had a trading volume of 3,282,396 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,499,356. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $293.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $267.99. The company has a market capitalization of $269.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.39, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.30. Salesforce, Inc. has a 1-year low of $193.68 and a 1-year high of $318.71.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.06. Salesforce had a return on equity of 10.42% and a net margin of 11.87%. The business had revenue of $9.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.01 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 9.52%.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $292.43, for a total transaction of $4,386,450.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 13,521,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,953,994,573.38. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $292.43, for a total transaction of $4,386,450.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,521,166 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,953,994,573.38. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Srinivas Tallapragada sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.93, for a total value of $2,889,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 60,416 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,455,994.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 624,193 shares of company stock valued at $182,212,898. 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.