1,834 Shares in Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) Bought by OneAscent Investment Solutions LLC

OneAscent Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 1,834 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $492,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. raised its stake in Salesforce by 119.1% during the 1st quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 23,452 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,294,000 after buying an additional 12,746 shares during the period. Harfst & Associates Inc. increased its holdings in Salesforce by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Harfst & Associates Inc. now owns 7,716 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,071,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 76.4% during the 1st quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 323,810 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $86,898,000 after purchasing an additional 140,208 shares in the last quarter. Sit Investment Associates Inc. increased its holdings in Salesforce by 15.8% during the 1st quarter. Sit Investment Associates Inc. now owns 86,316 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $23,164,000 after purchasing an additional 11,750 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Holderness Investments Co. increased its holdings in Salesforce by 10.1% during the 1st quarter. Holderness Investments Co. now owns 2,911 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $781,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald cut Salesforce from an “overweight” rating to a “cautious” rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Northland Securities lowered their target price on Salesforce from $423.00 to $396.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Salesforce from $243.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Salesforce from $315.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Salesforce from $375.00 to $325.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Three investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $346.84.

Salesforce Stock Up 2.4%

NYSE CRM opened at $237.14 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Salesforce Inc. has a 1-year low of $226.48 and a 1-year high of $369.00. The company has a 50 day moving average of $261.72 and a 200-day moving average of $277.44. The company has a market cap of $226.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.11, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.37.

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

Salesforce Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 18th were given a dividend of $0.416 per share. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 18th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 25.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 2,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $260.30, for a total transaction of $585,675.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 11,955,566 shares in the company, valued at $3,112,033,829.80. The trade was a 0.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold 44,282 shares of company stock worth $11,554,754 in the last three months. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.