Stifel Nicolaus Has Lowered Expectations for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Stock Price

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) had its target price cut by research analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $425.00 to $375.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the CRM provider’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ price objective indicates a potential upside of 25.60% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on CRM. Guggenheim lowered shares of Salesforce from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $247.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $425.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup restated a “cautious” rating on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday. KeyCorp upgraded Salesforce from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $440.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their target price on Salesforce from $405.00 to $400.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, thirty-two have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $369.53.

Salesforce Stock Performance

CRM traded down $8.75 on Thursday, hitting $298.58. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,585,969 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,445,978. Salesforce has a 12 month low of $212.00 and a 12 month high of $369.00. The firm has a market cap of $285.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $330.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $306.97.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by ($0.03). Salesforce had a return on equity of 12.34% and a net margin of 15.96%. The company had revenue of $9.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.35 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.62 earnings per share. Salesforce’s revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Salesforce will post 7.46 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, Director G Mason Morfit sold 722,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $346.11, for a total transaction of $249,995,253.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,192,009 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,104,786,234.99. The trade was a 18.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Miguel Milano sold 458 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $141,050.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,864 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,805,936.08. The trade was a 7.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,102,572 shares of company stock worth $381,283,706 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CRM. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Salesforce by 1.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,007,404 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,432,855,000 after acquiring an additional 864,193 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,955,353 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $6,656,078,000 after purchasing an additional 175,035 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 12,453,872 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,163,703,000 after purchasing an additional 177,321 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 18.3% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 11,224,927 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,752,830,000 after buying an additional 1,736,667 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,599,867,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Company 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.