Bridgewater Associates LP Lowers Position in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Bridgewater Associates LP lowered its holdings in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 270,414 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 12,858 shares during the period. Bridgewater Associates LP’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $74,015,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Creekmur Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 90.3% during the 1st quarter. Creekmur Asset Management LLC now owns 255 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $77,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 10,990 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $3,310,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Salesforce by 53.5% during the 1st quarter. Jaffetilchin Investment Partners LLC now owns 3,609 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,087,000 after purchasing an additional 1,258 shares during the last quarter. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in Salesforce during the 1st quarter worth approximately $208,000. Finally, Heartland Bank & Trust Co bought a new position in Salesforce during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,817,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 413 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.29, for a total value of $117,824.77. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 7,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,998,741.74. The trade was a 5.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Parker Harris sold 3,528 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.59, for a total value of $884,081.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 117,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $29,464,622.79. The trade was a 2.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 144,510 shares of company stock valued at $42,475,538 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Stock Up 1.2 %

Salesforce stock opened at $343.21 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $328.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.69, a PEG ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $298.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $269.44. Salesforce, Inc. 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.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The CRM provider reported $2.56 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 analyst estimates of $9.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.63 earnings per share. Salesforce’s revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 18th were issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 18th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is currently 27.83%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on CRM. BNP Paribas upgraded Salesforce to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Cfra set a $343.00 price target on Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Northland Securities upgraded Salesforce from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $270.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Salesforce from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Salesforce from $320.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $339.66.

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.