Empower Advisory Group LLC Sells 7,652 Shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Empower Advisory Group LLC decreased its stake in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 367,441 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 7,652 shares during the quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $122,847,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,007,404 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $13,432,855,000 after acquiring an additional 864,193 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,780,318 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $5,395,132,000 after acquiring an additional 257,501 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 2.6% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 12,276,551 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,360,215,000 after acquiring an additional 314,530 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.0% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,964,702 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,632,599,000 after acquiring an additional 57,825 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 1.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,912,854 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,618,407,000 after acquiring an additional 96,381 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CRM. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Salesforce from $425.00 to $440.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Salesforce from $368.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $450.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Guggenheim downgraded Salesforce from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $247.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, thirty-one have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $377.63.

Salesforce Stock Down 1.3 %

Salesforce stock opened at $325.49 on Monday. Salesforce, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $212.00 and a fifty-two week high of $369.00. The stock has a market cap of $311.49 billion, a PE ratio of 53.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.31. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $336.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $303.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.11.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.44 by ($0.03). Salesforce had a return on equity of 12.34% and a net margin of 15.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.35 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.62 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 18th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $335.94, for a total transaction of $167,970.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 6,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,202,758.58. This represents a 7.09 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 317,105 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.78, for a total transaction of $109,965,671.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,162,457 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,217,696,838.46. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 1,111,420 shares of company stock worth $384,366,700. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.