Canton Hathaway LLC Boosts Stake in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Canton Hathaway LLC raised its holdings in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 46.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,588 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 500 shares during the period. Canton Hathaway LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $435,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CRM. Gabelli Funds LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 34.0% during the 1st quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 2,150 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $648,000 after buying an additional 545 shares in the last quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 59.2% during the first quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,258 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $379,000 after acquiring an additional 468 shares in the last quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 134.0% in the first quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 9,663 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,910,000 after purchasing an additional 5,534 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 3.4% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 648,753 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $195,189,000 after purchasing an additional 21,298 shares during the period. Finally, Interval Partners LP grew its stake in Salesforce by 157.1% in the first quarter. Interval Partners LP now owns 36,000 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $10,842,000 after purchasing an additional 22,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CRM. UBS Group lifted their target price on Salesforce from $275.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $385.00 price objective (up from $330.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $315.00 price target (up previously from $300.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $337.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Salesforce

In other news, insider Parker Harris sold 3,528 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.59, for a total transaction of $884,081.52. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 117,581 shares in the company, valued at $29,464,622.79. This trade represents a 2.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Brian Millham sold 60,522 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.00, for a total transaction of $18,156,600.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 147,991 shares of company stock worth $43,333,238. Insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of CRM stock opened at $346.19 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. Salesforce, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $212.00 and a fifty-two week high of $348.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $330.96 billion, a PE ratio of 59.48, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.29. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $294.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $268.53.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The CRM provider reported $2.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $9.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 15.44% and a return on equity of 12.01%. Salesforce’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.63 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 18th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 18th. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.83%.

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.