Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Cuts Stake in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lessened its stake in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 6.4% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 19,902 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 1,361 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $5,447,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Salesforce in the 1st quarter worth approximately $874,748,000. Veritas Asset Management LLP acquired a new position in shares of Salesforce during the third quarter worth $733,805,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of Salesforce by 48.3% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 5,906,877 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $1,518,658,000 after purchasing an additional 1,922,674 shares during the period. AMF Tjanstepension AB grew its holdings in Salesforce by 376.1% during the 2nd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 1,442,453 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $370,873,000 after purchasing an additional 1,139,472 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its stake in Salesforce by 171.2% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,634,834 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $447,470,000 after buying an additional 1,032,068 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Salesforce from $325.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Salesforce from $310.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Evercore ISI restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Salesforce in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Salesforce from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-eight have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $339.66.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE CRM opened at $339.12 on Tuesday. Salesforce, Inc. has a 12-month low of $212.00 and a 12-month high of $348.86. The company has a market cap of $324.20 billion, a PE ratio of 58.98, a P/E/G ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $296.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $268.98. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The CRM provider reported $2.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.20. Salesforce had a net margin of 15.44% and a return on equity of 12.01%. The business had revenue of $9.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.22 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.63 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.55 EPS for the current year.

Salesforce Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Salesforce

In other news, insider Sabastian Niles sold 2,484 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $244.81, for a total transaction of $608,108.04. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 828 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $202,702.68. This represents a 75.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Miguel Milano sold 719 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.81, for a total value of $246,480.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 4,659 shares in the company, valued at $1,597,151.79. This represents a 13.37 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 144,510 shares of company stock valued at $42,475,538 over the last ninety days. 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.