Stewart & Patten Co. LLC Cuts Holdings in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Stewart & Patten Co. LLC lowered its holdings in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 12.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 673 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Stewart & Patten Co. LLC’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $203,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. WESPAC Advisors SoCal LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 12.3% in the 1st quarter. WESPAC Advisors SoCal LLC now owns 2,657 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $800,000 after acquiring an additional 290 shares during the last quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 655.8% in the 1st quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 48,608 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $14,640,000 after acquiring an additional 42,177 shares during the last quarter. Consilio Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 7.6% in the 1st quarter. Consilio Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 964 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $290,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Claro Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Claro Advisors LLC now owns 4,092 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,232,000 after acquiring an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CCG Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Salesforce in the 1st quarter valued at about $220,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $350.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Salesforce from $360.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $345.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on Salesforce from $330.00 to $285.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Salesforce from $300.00 to $250.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $292.79.

Salesforce Price Performance

NYSE CRM traded down $0.96 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $256.14. The stock had a trading volume of 5,870,518 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,977,129. Salesforce, Inc. has a 52-week low of $193.68 and a 52-week high of $318.71. The company has a market cap of $248.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $259.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $276.47. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 29th. The CRM provider reported $2.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.38 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $9.13 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.15 billion. Salesforce had a return on equity of 11.57% and a net margin of 15.30%. Salesforce’s revenue was up 10.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.15 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 9th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 9th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 7.19%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, COO Brian Millham sold 2,018 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.00, for a total transaction of $524,680.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, COO Brian Millham sold 2,018 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $260.00, for a total value of $524,680.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 2,425 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.15, for a total value of $662,388.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 5,856 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,599,566.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 509,952 shares of company stock valued at $139,786,753. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

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.