Wealthquest Corp Invests $207,000 in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Wealthquest Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 618 shares of the CRM provider’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 14.5% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 96,205 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $24,734,000 after purchasing an additional 12,193 shares during the last quarter. Kowal Investment Group LLC purchased a new stake in Salesforce during the second quarter valued at approximately $215,000. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its position in Salesforce by 8.7% in the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 296,331 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $76,187,000 after acquiring an additional 23,750 shares during the period. Gabelli Funds LLC boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 11.9% during the 2nd quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 2,405 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $618,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 7.0% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,315 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,634,000 after acquiring an additional 411 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 317,105 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $346.78, for a total value of $109,965,671.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 12,162,457 shares in the company, valued at $4,217,696,838.46. The trade was a 2.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 413 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.29, for a total transaction of $117,824.77. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 7,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,998,741.74. The trade was a 5.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 1,173,477 shares of company stock valued at $402,596,964 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $324.77 on Tuesday. Salesforce, Inc. has a twelve month low of $212.00 and a twelve month high of $369.00. The firm has a market cap of $310.81 billion, a PE ratio of 53.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.30. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $337.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $292.02. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 15.96% and a return on equity of 12.34%. The firm had revenue of $9.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.35 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.62 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 18th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.32%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on CRM shares. Bank of America raised their target price on Salesforce from $390.00 to $440.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. 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. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Salesforce from $425.00 to $440.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $380.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Friday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. One research 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $377.63.

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.