Russell Investments Group Ltd. Purchases 280,902 Shares of salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its position in salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 30.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,196,947 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 280,902 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in salesforce.com were worth $181,472,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CRM. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI grew its holdings in salesforce.com by 63.0% during the 1st quarter. Arcadia Investment Management Corp MI now owns 176 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Fagan Associates Inc. grew its holdings in salesforce.com by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Fagan Associates Inc. now owns 5,760 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $912,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC grew its holdings in salesforce.com by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,123 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $495,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Allred Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in salesforce.com by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Allred Capital Management LLC now owns 4,494 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $692,000 after acquiring an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its holdings in salesforce.com by 9.1% during the 2nd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 890 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $135,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. 82.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Evercore ISI set a $190.00 price objective on shares of salesforce.com and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of salesforce.com from $182.00 to $184.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. UBS Group set a $190.00 target price on shares of salesforce.com and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Stephens set a $184.00 target price on shares of salesforce.com and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of salesforce.com from $181.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, forty have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $182.63.

In other salesforce.com news, Chairman Marc Benioff sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $149.88, for a total transaction of $1,498,800.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Craig Conway sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.10, for a total transaction of $28,220.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 10,002 shares in the company, valued at $1,411,282.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 310,842 shares of company stock worth $47,256,086 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 5.50% of the company’s stock.

Shares of NYSE:CRM traded down $0.72 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $155.21. The stock had a trading volume of 770,115 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,462,350. The firm has a market cap of $134.68 billion, a PE ratio of 107.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.66 and a beta of 1.27. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $151.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $156.08. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. salesforce.com, inc. has a twelve month low of $113.60 and a twelve month high of $167.56.

salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 22nd. The CRM provider reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.09 by $0.57. The firm had revenue of $4 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.96 billion. salesforce.com had a net margin of 6.45% and a return on equity of 7.26%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 21.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.71 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that salesforce.com, inc. will post 1.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

salesforce.com Profile

salesforce.com, inc. develops enterprise cloud computing solutions with a focus on customer relationship management. The company offers Sales Cloud to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, and gain insights through analytics and relationship intelligence, as well as deliver quotes, contracts, and invoices.

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