Salesforce’s (CRM) Sell Rating Reaffirmed at Guggenheim

Guggenheim reissued their sell rating on shares of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) in a research note published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $247.00 target price on the CRM provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on CRM. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $400.00 target price (up from $380.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Bank of America reduced their price objective on Salesforce from $440.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on Salesforce from $415.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Erste Group Bank raised Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Salesforce from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, thirty-two have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Salesforce has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $365.32.

Salesforce Trading Down 4.1 %

NYSE:CRM opened at $294.80 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $282.12 billion, a PE ratio of 48.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $330.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $306.89. Salesforce has a 12 month low of $212.00 and a 12 month high of $369.00.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $9.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.35 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 15.96% and a return on equity of 12.34%. The firm’s revenue was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.62 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Salesforce will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 18th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 18th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Miguel Milano sold 458 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $141,050.26. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 5,864 shares in the company, valued at $1,805,936.08. This represents a 7.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 436 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $332.28, for a total transaction of $144,874.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 7,057 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,344,899.96. This trade represents a 5.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,102,572 shares of company stock worth $381,283,706 in the last ninety days. 3.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Valmark Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 14.2% during the third quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 3,034 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $830,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. raised its position in Salesforce by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 31,664 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,332,000 after buying an additional 332 shares during the last quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Salesforce by 27.4% during the 3rd quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 512 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $140,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares during the period. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its stake in Salesforce by 44.8% during the 3rd quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 39,743 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $10,878,000 after acquiring an additional 12,294 shares during the period. Finally, Oak Harvest Investment Services boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 57.2% in the 3rd quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services now owns 9,491 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,598,000 after acquiring an additional 3,453 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

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.