Corient IA LLC Makes New Investment in Salesforce Inc. $CRM

Key Points

• Corient IA LLC has acquired 2,000 shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM), valued at approximately $537,000, marking the latest addition to the company's institutional investor base.
• Salesforce recently reported a net margin of 16.08% and a year-over-year revenue increase of 7.6%, beating analyst estimates with $2.58 earnings per share.
• CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares valued at around $527,940, reducing his ownership slightly, as insider sales accounted for 46,532 shares sold in the last quarter.

Corient IA LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 2,000 shares of the CRM provider's stock, valued at approximately $537,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 1st quarter valued at $2,039,196,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 926.4% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 4,256,211 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,422,979,000 after buying an additional 3,841,521 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 30,456.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,801,588 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $1,020,194,000 after buying an additional 3,789,147 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 18.3% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 11,224,927 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $3,752,830,000 after buying an additional 1,736,667 shares during the period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Salesforce by 1,744.0% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,820,262 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $488,486,000 after buying an additional 1,721,550 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CRM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $260.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Monday. Northland Securities dropped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $423.00 to $396.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded shares of Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "cautious" rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and issued a $275.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twenty-six have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $342.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.49, for a total value of $543,352.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at $2,876,525,280.79. This trade represents a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold 48,782 shares of company stock valued at $12,626,046 in the last three months. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.7%

CRM stock traded up $1.71 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $244.15. The company had a trading volume of 8,802,889 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,312,840. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The company has a market capitalization of $233.41 billion, a PE ratio of 38.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.37. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $259.85 and a 200 day moving average of $274.14. Salesforce Inc. has a 12 month low of $226.48 and a 12 month high of $369.00.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 28th. The CRM provider reported $2.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.55 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $9.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.74 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 16.08% and a return on equity of 12.94%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.44 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Salesforce Inc. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 18th were paid a $0.416 dividend. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 18th. Salesforce's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.98%.

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.