Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Upgraded at Roth Capital

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM – Get Rating) was upgraded by investment analysts at Roth Capital from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $242.00 price objective on the CRM provider’s stock. Roth Capital’s price target points to a potential upside of 48.23% from the company’s current price.

CRM has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Salesforce to $225.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 2nd. Raymond James cut their price target on shares of Salesforce from $340.00 to $300.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 2nd. Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $244.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, February 1st. Finally, OTR Global lowered shares of Salesforce to a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, May 12th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $294.03.

NYSE:CRM traded down $0.47 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $163.26. The stock had a trading volume of 40,105 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,771,962. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $192.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $227.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $161.69 billion, a PE ratio of 108.37, a P/E/G ratio of 4.75 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. Salesforce has a 12 month low of $154.64 and a 12 month high of $311.75.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 1st. The CRM provider reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $7.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.24 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 5.45% and a return on equity of 4.76%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 25.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.54 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Salesforce will post 2.1 EPS for the current year.

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.36, for a total value of $378,028.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 28,926,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,754,277,360. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Srinivas Tallapragada sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.57, for a total value of $4,071,400.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 137,435 shares of company stock valued at $27,121,158. 4.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Salesforce by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 77,620,937 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $16,480,478,000 after buying an additional 1,458,042 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 44,687,516 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $9,488,053,000 after purchasing an additional 433,659 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 20.2% in the second quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,563,897 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,046,065,000 after purchasing an additional 2,787,393 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 5.3% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 15,889,819 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,309,637,000 after purchasing an additional 805,630 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 15,448,821 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,914,460,000 after purchasing an additional 564,493 shares during the period. 77.75% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Salesforce Company Profile (Get Rating)

Salesforce, Inc provides customer relationship management technology that brings companies and customers together worldwide. Its Customer 360 platform empowers its customers to work together to deliver connected experiences for their customers. The company's service offerings include Sales to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, gain insights through analytics and relationship intelligence, and deliver quotes, contracts, and invoices; and Service that enables companies to deliver trusted and highly personalized customer service and support at scale.

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