Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc. Grows Stock Position in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 16.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,197 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the period. Folger Nolan Fleming Douglas Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $315,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. DAVENPORT & Co LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 4,411 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $894,000 after acquiring an additional 901 shares during the period. Advisory Alpha LLC bought a new position in Salesforce in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $293,000. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC boosted its stake in Salesforce by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 3,193 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $647,000 after purchasing an additional 231 shares during the period. KRS Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Salesforce by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. KRS Capital Management LLC now owns 5,716 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,159,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Progressive Investment Management Corp boosted its stake in Salesforce by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Progressive Investment Management Corp now owns 23,737 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,813,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the period. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on CRM. StockNews.com downgraded Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, April 15th. KeyCorp initiated coverage on Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. They set a “sector weight” rating for the company. Citigroup increased their target price on Salesforce from $265.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Argus increased their target price on Salesforce from $290.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $310.61.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $315.54, for a total value of $4,733,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 13,311,166 shares in the company, valued at $4,200,205,319.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Srinivas Tallapragada sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.12, for a total transaction of $2,831,200.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 60,416 shares in the company, valued at $17,104,977.92. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.54, for a total value of $4,733,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now 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 have sold 620,793 shares of company stock worth $182,177,918 over the last quarter. Insiders own 3.70% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of CRM stock traded up $1.15 on Friday, hitting $274.29. The stock had a trading volume of 3,754,585 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,162,527. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $295.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $263.90. The company has a market cap of $266.06 billion, a PE ratio of 65.31, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.28. Salesforce, Inc. has a one year low of $190.76 and a one year high of $318.71.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $9.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.01 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

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

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.