UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp Decreases Holdings in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp reduced its holdings in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 16,353 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 179 shares during the quarter. Salesforce accounts for approximately 1.3% of UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. UNIVEST FINANCIAL Corp’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $4,303,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Graypoint LLC lifted its position in Salesforce by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 10,504 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,764,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the period. Chase Investment Counsel Corp increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp now owns 10,377 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,730,000 after purchasing an additional 36 shares during the period. Opes Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Opes Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,295 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $341,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Prentice Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Prentice Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,294 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $604,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Finally, MV Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,045 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $275,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on CRM shares. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $345.00 target price (up previously from $325.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $350.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Salesforce from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. UBS Group lifted their price target on Salesforce from $285.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Salesforce from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $310.61.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.01, for a total value of $4,125,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,677,327 shares in the company, valued at $3,486,391,698.27. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.01, for a total value of $4,125,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,677,327 shares in the company, valued at $3,486,391,698.27. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 2,425 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.15, for a total value of $662,388.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 5,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,599,566.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 619,993 shares of company stock worth $181,241,324. 3.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE:CRM traded up $1.55 on Tuesday, hitting $277.18. 3,216,809 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,524,087. The stock has a market cap of $268.31 billion, a PE ratio of 66.27, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $293.74 and a 200-day moving average of $267.47. Salesforce, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $193.68 and a fifty-two week high of $318.71.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.06. The company 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 firm’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.01 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio 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.