Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Shares Down 0.9% After Insider Selling

Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s stock price dropped 0.9% during trading on Tuesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The company traded as low as $272.35 and last traded at $273.14. Approximately 1,169,548 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 79% from the average daily volume of 5,581,461 shares. The stock had previously closed at $275.74.

Specifically, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.82, for a total transaction of $4,287,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,581,166 shares in the company, valued at $3,881,768,866.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, insider Srinivas Tallapragada sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.93, for a total value of $2,889,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 60,416 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,455,994.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $285.82, for a total transaction of $4,287,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 13,581,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,881,768,866.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 614,993 shares of company stock worth $180,212,524. Corporate insiders own 3.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on CRM. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and issued a $360.00 price target (up previously from $275.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Wedbush upped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. 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 report on Thursday, February 29th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $310.61.

Salesforce Stock Down 0.1 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The company has a market capitalization of $260.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $295.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $265.67.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 11.87% and a return on equity of 10.42%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.01 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. Salesforce’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.52%.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 35,220 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $9,268,000 after acquiring an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. now owns 7,881 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $2,206,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 4th quarter valued at about $214,000. Lone Pine Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 47.5% during the 3rd quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 2,499,630 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $506,875,000 after purchasing an additional 804,634 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL lifted its holdings in Salesforce by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 821,761 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $166,637,000 after purchasing an additional 6,888 shares during the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.