Empirical Finance LLC Acquires 757 Shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Empirical Finance LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 2.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 33,203 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 757 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $9,088,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 26.9% during the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,376,536 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,329,925,000 after buying an additional 3,044,611 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC acquired a new position in Salesforce in the first quarter worth about $910,220,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Salesforce in the first quarter worth about $874,748,000. Veritas Asset Management LLP bought a new stake in Salesforce during the third quarter worth about $733,805,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 48.3% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,906,877 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,518,658,000 after purchasing an additional 1,922,674 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, insider Parker Harris sold 3,970 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.74, for a total transaction of $1,178,057.80. Following the sale, the insider now owns 119,402 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,431,349.48. The trade was a 3.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 413 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.29, for a total value of $117,824.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 7,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,998,741.74. This represents a 5.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 144,373 shares of company stock worth $41,250,680. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $315.00 price target (up from $300.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $285.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Piper Sandler lowered shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $250.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $322.51.

Salesforce Trading Down 1.0 %

CRM opened at $328.20 on Friday. Salesforce, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $212.00 and a fifty-two week high of $348.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $313.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.66, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.29. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $283.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $265.84.

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

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 18th were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 18th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.83%.

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.