Financial Advocates Investment Management Raises Stock Position in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Financial Advocates Investment Management grew its holdings in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 19.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,848 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,460 shares during the quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $2,275,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. 1834 Investment Advisors Co. boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 67.8% in the second quarter. 1834 Investment Advisors Co. now owns 3,299 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $848,000 after purchasing an additional 1,333 shares during the period. Strategic Blueprint LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.4% during the second quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 22,667 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,828,000 after buying an additional 312 shares during the period. Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 7.3% during the second quarter. Valley Brook Capital Group Inc. now owns 4,674 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,202,000 after buying an additional 320 shares during the period. Wright Investors Service Inc. lifted its stake in Salesforce by 82.7% in the second quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc. now owns 11,353 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,919,000 after acquiring an additional 5,139 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northeast Investment Management lifted its stake in Salesforce by 5.1% in the second quarter. Northeast Investment Management now owns 1,094 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $281,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director G Mason Morfit purchased 428,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 3rd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $233.17 per share, with a total value of $99,796,760.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 3,914,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $912,699,429.53. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Salesforce news, Director G Mason Morfit acquired 428,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $233.17 per share, for a total transaction of $99,796,760.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 3,914,309 shares in the company, valued at $912,699,429.53. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $235.71, for a total value of $3,535,650.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,362,327 shares in the company, valued at $2,913,924,097.17. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 112,964 shares of company stock worth $27,956,647 in the last three months. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.5 %

CRM stock traded up $1.38 on Thursday, hitting $260.28. 8,409,907 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,572,214. The stock has a market capitalization of $252.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.29. The business’s fifty day moving average is $253.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $271.63. Salesforce, Inc. has a twelve month low of $193.68 and a twelve month high of $318.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $9.33 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 11.57% and a net margin of 15.30%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.63 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 9th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 9th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.61%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.78%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and set a $342.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Salesforce from $330.00 to $285.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Salesforce from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $301.71.

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.