WASHINGTON TRUST Co Buys 1,410 Shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

WASHINGTON TRUST Co lifted its position in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 73,177 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,410 shares during the period. WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $19,256,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Union Savings Bank bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the second quarter worth about $27,000. Pacifica Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 333.3% in the fourth quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc. now owns 130 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 30.4% in the fourth quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 270 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Live Oak Investment Partners bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on CRM shares. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Salesforce from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $290.00 to $350.00 in a report on Thursday, December 21st. UBS Group increased their target price on Salesforce from $285.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $360.00 target price (up from $275.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Citigroup increased their target price on Salesforce from $265.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on Salesforce from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $304.32.

Salesforce Stock Down 1.7 %

Salesforce stock traded down $5.21 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $300.62. 2,311,532 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,751,352. The business’s 50 day moving average is $292.85 and its 200 day moving average is $251.18. Salesforce, Inc. has a 52 week low of $187.31 and a 52 week high of $318.71. The company has a market capitalization of $291.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 71.68, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.28. 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 earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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%. Salesforce’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.01 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.52%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $251.61, for a total transaction of $3,774,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 13,896,166 shares in the company, valued at $3,496,414,327.26. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Srinivas Tallapragada sold 10,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $258.58, for a total transaction of $2,585,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 59,861 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,478,857.38. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $251.61, for a total value of $3,774,150.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 13,896,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,496,414,327.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,159,307 shares of company stock worth $324,535,513 over the last quarter. 3.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.