Loop Capital Reiterates “Hold” Rating for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Loop Capital reaffirmed their hold rating on shares of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) in a research report report published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Loop Capital currently has a $270.00 price target on the CRM provider’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. JMP Securities restated a market outperform rating and set a $342.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. FBN Securities raised shares of Salesforce to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $306.00.

Salesforce Stock Performance

CRM stock opened at $266.80 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. The stock has a market cap of $258.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $254.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $266.18. Salesforce has a 52 week low of $193.68 and a 52 week high of $318.71.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The CRM provider reported $2.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $9.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 15.44% and a return on equity of 12.01%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.63 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 7.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 18th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.60%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.78%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 413 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.78, for a total transaction of $105,637.14. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 6,431 shares in the company, valued at $1,644,921.18. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 6,431 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,644,921.18. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 5,600 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.17, for a total transaction of $1,400,952.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 116,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,193,087.81. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 63,891 shares of company stock worth $16,306,944 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Salesforce

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 66.3% in the 4th quarter. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management now owns 1,567 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $412,000 after purchasing an additional 625 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 5,951,415 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,566,055,000 after buying an additional 18,397 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 32.6% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 789,525 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $207,756,000 after buying an additional 194,224 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 7,160 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,983,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Finally, XN LP raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 24.2% in the second quarter. XN LP now owns 464,489 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $119,420,000 after buying an additional 90,616 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% 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.