AIA Group Ltd Boosts Stock Position in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

AIA Group Ltd boosted its holdings in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 12.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 24,393 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,651 shares during the quarter. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $6,419,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bear Mountain Capital Inc. purchased a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Pacifica Partners Inc. increased its holdings in Salesforce by 333.3% in the fourth quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc. now owns 130 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 892.9% in the fourth quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC now owns 139 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc purchased a new position in Salesforce in the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on CRM shares. KeyCorp started coverage on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They issued a “sector weight” rating for the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Argus upped their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $290.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Wolfe Research restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $365.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $310.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $307.87.

Salesforce Price Performance

Salesforce stock traded down $4.52 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $271.80. The company had a trading volume of 4,120,889 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,684,668. Salesforce, Inc. has a 1 year low of $190.57 and a 1 year high of $318.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The company has a market capitalization of $263.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.71, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $298.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $260.89.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.06. Salesforce had a net margin of 11.87% and a return on equity of 10.42%. The company had revenue of $9.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.22 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.01 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.59%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.52%.

Insider Transactions at Salesforce

In other news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 216 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were 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 directly owns 2,869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $799,618.99. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 216 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 23rd. The shares were 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 directly owns 2,869 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $799,618.99. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Brian Millham sold 293,965 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $82,310,200.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 907,149 shares of company stock valued at $262,952,448 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 3.70% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Company 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.