Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Grows Position in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 4.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 166,765 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,713 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $43,883,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of CRM. Graypoint LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 10,504 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,764,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,294 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $604,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 3.9% in the 4th 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. Legal Advantage Investments Inc. boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Legal Advantage Investments Inc. now owns 5,571 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,466,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,411 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $898,000 after buying an additional 41 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 research analysts recently commented on CRM shares. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $350.00 price objective (up from $325.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $360.00 price objective (up from $275.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $350.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $285.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Nine 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, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $307.87.

Salesforce Trading Down 0.4 %

CRM traded down $1.08 on Wednesday, reaching $276.33. 4,198,638 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,706,728. The company’s 50 day moving average is $298.35 and its 200-day moving average is $260.79. The company has a market cap of $268.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.90, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.28. Salesforce, Inc. has a twelve month low of $190.57 and a twelve month high of $318.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its 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 firm had revenue of $9.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 11.87% and a return on equity of 10.42%. The company’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.01 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

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 transaction 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 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 transaction 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.01, for a total transaction of $4,110,150.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,761,166 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,770,697,095.66. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 912,375 shares of company stock valued at $264,376,996 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.70% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce 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.