Piper Sandler Reiterates Neutral Rating for Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reissued by analysts at Piper Sandler in a research note issued on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $300.00 target price on the CRM provider’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 8.14% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on CRM. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Argus increased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $290.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $350.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $345.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $307.87.

Salesforce Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of Salesforce stock opened at $277.41 on Monday. Salesforce has a 12-month low of $190.57 and a 12-month high of $318.71. The company has a market cap of $269.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.05, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $298.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $260.79.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $9.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 11.87% and a return on equity of 10.42%. Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.01 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Salesforce will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other Salesforce news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 216 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.71, for a total transaction of $60,201.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $799,618.99. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $274.01, for a total transaction of $4,110,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,761,166 shares in the company, valued at $3,770,697,095.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 216 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.71, for a total value of $60,201.36. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $799,618.99. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 897,375 shares of company stock valued at $260,206,096. 3.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Salesforce

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CRM. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Salesforce by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 83,626,413 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $22,005,454,000 after buying an additional 1,240,821 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Salesforce by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 45,509,345 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $9,091,832,000 after buying an additional 391,648 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Salesforce by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 19,561,325 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,147,402,000 after buying an additional 457,463 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Salesforce by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 19,003,836 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,519,719,000 after purchasing an additional 149,012 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 14,921,042 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,926,323,000 after purchasing an additional 752,566 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.