Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. trimmed its stake in shares of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 9.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 55,674 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after selling 6,067 shares during the period. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Salesforce were worth $14,650,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CRM. Cerity Partners LLC increased its holdings in Salesforce by 1,254.7% during the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 3,483,670 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $916,693,000 after buying an additional 3,226,512 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 23,653.7% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,406,220 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $370,033,000 after purchasing an additional 1,400,300 shares during the period. Lone Pine Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 47.5% in the third quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 2,499,630 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $506,875,000 after purchasing an additional 804,634 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Salesforce by 330.0% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 935,885 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $189,779,000 after purchasing an additional 718,245 shares during the period. Finally, J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Salesforce in the third quarter worth approximately $114,521,000. 80.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target 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. Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and set a $345.00 target price (up previously from $325.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Wedbush upped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $280.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Salesforce from $265.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 26th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $310.61.

Salesforce Trading Down 1.6 %

CRM stock traded down $4.47 during trading on Thursday, hitting $271.72. The company had a trading volume of 2,070,286 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,651,590. The firm has a market capitalization of $263.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.14, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.28. Salesforce, Inc. has a 52-week low of $190.57 and a 52-week high of $318.71. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $296.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $263.37. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The CRM provider reported $1.78 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.06. Salesforce had a net margin of 11.87% and a return on equity of 10.42%. The company had revenue of $9.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.01 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Salesforce, Inc. will post 7.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Salesforce Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 13th. Salesforce’s payout ratio is 9.52%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.94, for a total transaction of $4,064,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 12,827,327 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,475,435,977.38. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Srinivas Tallapragada sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $283.12, for a total value of $2,831,200.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 60,416 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,104,977.92. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Marc Benioff sold 15,000 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.94, for a total transaction of $4,064,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 12,827,327 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,475,435,977.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 616,589 shares of company stock worth $181,071,306 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.70% of the company’s stock.

Salesforce Profile

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.