Scotiabank Begins Coverage on Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Stock analysts at Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm set a “sector outperform” rating and a $425.00 price target on the CRM provider’s stock. Scotiabank’s target price indicates a potential upside of 31.46% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on CRM. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $330.00 target price (up from $300.00) on shares of Salesforce in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $342.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Salesforce from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Salesforce from $295.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $325.36.

Salesforce Trading Up 0.3 %

NYSE:CRM opened at $323.29 on Monday. Salesforce has a 12 month low of $212.00 and a 12 month high of $348.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $309.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.22, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $289.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $267.31.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, COO Brian Millham sold 4,056 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $261.50, for a total transaction of $1,060,644.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 3,970 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $296.74, for a total transaction of $1,178,057.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 119,402 shares in the company, valued at $35,431,349.48. The trade was a 3.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 140,173 shares of company stock worth $40,146,206 in the last three months. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 49,007,404 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $13,432,855,000 after purchasing an additional 864,193 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Salesforce by 1.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,780,318 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $5,395,132,000 after buying an additional 257,501 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Salesforce by 26.9% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,376,536 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $4,329,925,000 after buying an additional 3,044,611 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its position in Salesforce by 3.0% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,116,449 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $4,251,592,000 after acquiring an additional 407,834 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Salesforce by 2.6% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 12,276,551 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $3,360,215,000 after acquiring an additional 314,530 shares in the last quarter. 80.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.