Austin Private Wealth LLC Sells 104 Shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Austin Private Wealth LLC lowered its position in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,687 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 104 shares during the period. Austin Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $691,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Graypoint LLC raised its holdings 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 during the last quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp increased 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 acquiring an additional 36 shares during the period. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 353 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $93,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the period. Opes Wealth Management LLC increased 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 acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Finally, Fox Hill Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 4.0% in the first quarter. Fox Hill Wealth Management now owns 985 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $297,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on CRM shares. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $231.00 to $234.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $345.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $355.00 to $295.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $335.00 to $265.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Raymond James restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $325.00 price target (down previously from $380.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $292.79.

Salesforce Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of CRM traded up $3.41 during trading on Friday, reaching $252.53. 2,975,285 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,696,709. Salesforce, Inc. has a twelve month low of $193.68 and a twelve month high of $318.71. The stock has a market cap of $244.70 billion, a PE ratio of 45.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $247.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $273.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 29th. The CRM provider reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.38 by $0.06. Salesforce had a net margin of 15.30% and a return on equity of 11.57%. The business had revenue of $9.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.15 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.15 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 9th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 9th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 28.78%.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In related news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 413 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.78, for a total value of $105,637.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 6,431 shares in the company, valued at $1,644,921.18. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 428,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was bought at an average price of $233.17 per share, for a total transaction of $99,796,760.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 3,914,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $912,699,429.53. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.78, for a total transaction of $105,637.14. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 6,431 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,644,921.18. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 232,842 shares of company stock worth $60,982,983. Corporate insiders own 3.20% 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.