Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) Shares Purchased by Federated Hermes Inc.

Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 1.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 418,196 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,525 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $110,044,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Bear Mountain Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Pacifica Partners Inc. grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 333.3% in the fourth quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc. now owns 130 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in Salesforce by 30.4% during the fourth quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 270 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the period. Finally, Live Oak Investment Partners purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CRM has been the subject of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $350.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded Salesforce from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Salesforce from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Salesforce from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price target on Salesforce from $290.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $307.87.

Salesforce Price Performance

NYSE CRM traded down $2.90 on Thursday, reaching $273.42. 1,712,987 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,651,236. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $298.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $260.89. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a market cap of $265.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.28. Salesforce, Inc. has a 12 month low of $190.57 and a 12 month high of $318.71.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 EPS 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. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.59%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 9.52%.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, COO Brian Millham sold 293,965 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $82,310,200.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, COO Brian Millham sold 293,965 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $82,310,200.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 216 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.71, for a total value of $60,201.36. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $799,618.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 907,149 shares of company stock valued at $262,952,448 in the last three months. 3.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.