Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC Has $379,000 Holdings in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 59.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,258 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 468 shares during the quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $379,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 35,220 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $9,268,000 after buying an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 66.3% during the 4th quarter. Spartan Planning & Wealth Management now owns 1,567 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $412,000 after buying an additional 625 shares in the last quarter. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. now owns 7,881 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,206,000 after buying an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 5,951,415 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,566,055,000 after buying an additional 18,397 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 32.6% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 789,525 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $207,756,000 after buying an additional 194,224 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on CRM shares. Wedbush cut their target price on Salesforce from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Salesforce from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Salesforce from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $292.79.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.66, for a total transaction of $3,249,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,407,327 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,688,171,467.82. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, Director G Mason Morfit bought 428,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The stock was bought at an average price of $233.17 per share, for a total transaction of $99,796,760.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,914,309 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $912,699,429.53. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.66, for a total value of $3,249,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,407,327 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,688,171,467.82. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 309,242 shares of company stock worth $82,157,371 in the last quarter. 3.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Stock Performance

CRM traded down $4.12 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $258.59. The stock had a trading volume of 5,100,150 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,804,961. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $251.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $275.56. Salesforce, Inc. has a 1 year low of $193.68 and a 1 year high of $318.71. The stock has a market cap of $250.57 billion, a PE ratio of 46.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 29th. The CRM provider reported $2.44 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 business had revenue of $9.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.15 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 9th were paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 9th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.78%.

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.