Tredje AP fonden Sells 53,162 Shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Key Points

• Tredje AP fonden reduced its stake in Salesforce Inc. by 12.4%, holding 374,219 shares valued at approximately $100.43 million, making it the fund's 22nd largest position.
• Despite recent sales by insiders, including CEO Marc Benioff, institutional investors own about 80.43% of Salesforce's stock.
• Salesforce reported a quarterly EPS of $2.58, exceeding analysts' expectations, and announcing a dividend of $0.416 per share, representing an annualized yield of 0.62%.

Tredje AP fonden lessened its holdings in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM - Free Report) by 12.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 374,219 shares of the CRM provider's stock after selling 53,162 shares during the quarter. Salesforce accounts for 0.9% of Tredje AP fonden's portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Tredje AP fonden's holdings in Salesforce were worth $100,425,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CRM. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its stake in shares of 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 in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 3,789,147 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 42.5% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,791,015 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $2,604,770,000 after acquiring an additional 2,325,156 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 18.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 11,224,927 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $3,752,830,000 after buying an additional 1,736,667 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1,744.0% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,820,262 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $488,486,000 after buying an additional 1,721,550 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.11, for a total value of $605,497.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,911,571 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,205,522,871.81. The trade was a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have sold 37,979 shares of company stock valued at $10,303,399 in the last three months. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on CRM. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Salesforce from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $370.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded Salesforce from an "overweight" rating to a "cautious" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. JMP Securities restated a "market outperform" rating and issued a $430.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Salesforce from $425.00 to $347.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $348.16.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Salesforce stock traded down $2.65 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $264.74. 3,913,122 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,561,630. Salesforce Inc. has a 52 week low of $230.00 and a 52 week high of $369.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.07. The firm has a market cap of $253.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.36. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $266.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $283.11.

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

Salesforce Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 18th were given a $0.416 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 18th. This represents a $1.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. Salesforce's payout ratio is 25.98%.

Salesforce Company 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.