Piper Sandler Lowers Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Price Target to $400.00

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) had its target price decreased by investment analysts at Piper Sandler from $405.00 to $400.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the CRM provider’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 34.39% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on CRM. Redburn Atlantic initiated coverage on shares of Salesforce in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Salesforce from $300.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Salesforce from $340.00 to $430.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Erste Group Bank upgraded Salesforce from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their target price on Salesforce from $250.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, thirty-two have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Salesforce currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $365.32.

Salesforce Stock Performance

Shares of CRM stock opened at $297.63 on Thursday. Salesforce has a 12 month low of $212.00 and a 12 month high of $369.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $284.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.95, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $329.11 and its 200 day moving average is $307.21.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, December 3rd. The CRM provider reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.44 by ($0.03). Salesforce had a return on equity of 12.34% and a net margin of 15.96%. The company had revenue of $9.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.35 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.62 earnings per share. Salesforce’s revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Salesforce will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Salesforce news, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 436 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $332.28, for a total value of $144,874.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 7,057 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,344,899.96. This represents a 5.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director G Mason Morfit sold 722,300 shares of Salesforce stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.11, for a total transaction of $249,995,253.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 3,192,009 shares in the company, valued at $1,104,786,234.99. The trade was a 18.45 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,102,572 shares of company stock worth $381,283,706. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Valmark Advisers Inc. grew its stake in Salesforce by 14.2% in the third quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 3,034 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $830,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 31,664 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $8,332,000 after buying an additional 332 shares during the period. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Salesforce by 27.4% in the 3rd quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 512 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $140,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its position in Salesforce by 44.8% during the 3rd quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 39,743 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $10,878,000 after acquiring an additional 12,294 shares during the period. Finally, Oak Harvest Investment Services boosted its stake in Salesforce by 57.2% during the third quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services now owns 9,491 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $2,598,000 after acquiring an additional 3,453 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.