Ascent Group LLC Increases Stock Position in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Ascent Group LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM – Get Rating) by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,740 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 75 shares during the quarter. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $771,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Verition Fund Management LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 1,014.8% during the second quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 32,386 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,345,000 after buying an additional 29,481 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR lifted its position in Salesforce by 0.5% during the third quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 137,757 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $19,815,000 after buying an additional 656 shares during the period. Archford Capital Strategies LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 6.6% during the third quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC now owns 4,736 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $681,000 after buying an additional 295 shares during the period. Personal Capital Advisors Corp lifted its position in Salesforce by 26.1% during the third quarter. Personal Capital Advisors Corp now owns 490,626 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $70,572,000 after buying an additional 101,463 shares during the period. Finally, Atria Investments LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 0.5% during the second quarter. Atria Investments LLC now owns 80,140 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $13,226,000 after buying an additional 383 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.83% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Trading Up 4.2 %

CRM stock opened at $182.89 on Wednesday. Salesforce, Inc. has a 1-year low of $126.34 and a 1-year high of $222.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The company has a market capitalization of $182.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 870.90, a PEG ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.21. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $163.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $153.24.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 1st. The CRM provider reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.36 by $0.32. Salesforce had a return on equity of 4.48% and a net margin of 0.66%. The business had revenue of $8.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.99 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.24 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Salesforce, Inc. will post 4.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, March 1st that permits the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the CRM provider to purchase up to 10.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on CRM shares. Atlantic Securities lifted their price target on Salesforce from $140.00 to $200.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 2nd. Macquarie lifted their price target on Salesforce from $218.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 2nd. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Salesforce from $200.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 2nd. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Salesforce from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 2nd. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on Salesforce from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $211.24.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 725 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.42, for a total transaction of $126,454.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 27,753,609 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,840,784,481.78. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 725 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $174.42, for a total transaction of $126,454.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 27,753,609 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,840,784,481.78. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 186 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.59, for a total value of $28,939.74. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,273 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $198,066.07. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 37,293 shares of company stock worth $6,285,082 in the last three months. 3.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Salesforce

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Salesforce, Inc engages in the design and development of cloud-based enterprise software for customer relationship management. Its solutions include sales force automation, customer service and support, marketing automation, digital commerce, community management, collaboration, industry-specific solutions, and salesforce platform.