Provence Wealth Management Group Purchases 313 Shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Provence Wealth Management Group lifted its position in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 15.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,403 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 313 shares during the period. Provence Wealth Management Group’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $632,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cerity Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1,254.7% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,483,670 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $916,693,000 after purchasing an additional 3,226,512 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 23,653.7% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,406,220 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $370,033,000 after buying an additional 1,400,300 shares during the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC increased its position in Salesforce by 47.5% during the 3rd quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 2,499,630 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $506,875,000 after buying an additional 804,634 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Salesforce by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 14,921,042 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,926,323,000 after buying an additional 752,566 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 330.0% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 935,885 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $189,779,000 after acquiring an additional 718,245 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the subject of several analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Salesforce from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 22nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $360.00 price target (up previously from $275.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $350.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on Salesforce from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $310.61.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $269.53, for a total transaction of $4,042,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,707,327 shares in the company, valued at $3,425,005,846.31. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.53, for a total transaction of $4,042,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,707,327 shares in the company, valued at $3,425,005,846.31. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Brian Millham sold 24,453 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.08, for a total value of $7,386,762.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 629,993 shares of company stock worth $184,255,474. 3.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Salesforce Stock Performance

NYSE CRM traded up $1.53 on Friday, reaching $273.66. 4,041,636 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,219,539. The firm has a market capitalization of $264.90 billion, a PE ratio of 65.16, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.30. Salesforce, Inc. has a one year low of $190.76 and a one year high of $318.71. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $294.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $266.17. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $9.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 10.42% and a net margin of 11.87%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.01 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.52%.

Salesforce 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.