BMO Capital Markets Cuts Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Price Target to $375.00

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) had its target price cut by BMO Capital Markets from $425.00 to $375.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the CRM provider’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently commented on CRM. Loop Capital cut their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $360.00 to $330.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. KeyCorp upgraded Salesforce from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $440.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, TD Cowen raised Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $380.00 to $400.00 in a report on Friday, January 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, thirty-two have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $375.53.

Salesforce Trading Down 2.8 %

NYSE:CRM opened at $309.54 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $296.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.91, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.31. 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 has a one year low of $212.00 and a one year high of $369.00. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $333.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $306.18.

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

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 18th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 18th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, insider Parker Harris sold 942 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $339.78, for a total value of $320,072.76. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 120,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,886,746.74. This represents a 0.78 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 317,105 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.78, for a total value of $109,965,671.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,162,457 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,217,696,838.46. This trade represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,102,114 shares of company stock valued at $381,142,656 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp lifted 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 purchasing an additional 864,193 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake 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 worth $6,656,078,000 after buying an additional 175,035 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 12,453,872 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,163,703,000 after buying an additional 177,321 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Salesforce by 18.3% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 11,224,927 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,752,830,000 after acquiring an additional 1,736,667 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,599,867,000. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Salesforce

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.