Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. Takes $303,000 Position in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,005 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $303,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc grew its stake in Salesforce by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 35,220 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $9,268,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management grew its stake in Salesforce by 66.3% in the fourth quarter. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management now owns 1,567 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $412,000 after purchasing an additional 625 shares in the last quarter. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. grew its stake in Salesforce by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. now owns 7,881 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,206,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC grew its stake in Salesforce by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 5,951,415 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,566,055,000 after purchasing an additional 18,397 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in Salesforce by 32.6% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 789,525 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $207,756,000 after purchasing an additional 194,224 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CRM. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on Salesforce from $350.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. DA Davidson dropped their target price on Salesforce from $300.00 to $230.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $342.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Argus increased their target price on Salesforce from $290.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $325.00 target price (down previously from $380.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $292.79.

Salesforce Trading Up 1.7 %

CRM stock opened at $257.10 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Salesforce, Inc. has a 12-month low of $193.68 and a 12-month high of $318.71. The stock has a market cap of $249.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.24, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.25. The business’s 50-day moving average is $259.79 and its 200 day moving average is $276.20.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 29th. The CRM provider reported $2.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.38 by $0.06. Salesforce had a return on equity of 11.57% and a net margin of 15.30%. The company had revenue of $9.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.15 EPS. Salesforce’s revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 9th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 9th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 7.19%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.42, for a total value of $4,581,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,981,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,964,707,719.72. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.42, for a total value of $4,581,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,981,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,964,707,719.72. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 4,200 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.75, for a total transaction of $1,267,350.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 105,837 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,936,314.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 547,387 shares of company stock valued at $151,174,635 in the last ninety days. 3.20% 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.