Scotiabank Begins Coverage on Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm set a "sector outperform" rating and a $425.00 price target on the CRM provider's stock. Scotiabank's price target would indicate a potential upside of 31.89% from the company's current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on CRM. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Salesforce from $320.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Salesforce from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $345.00 price objective on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and set a $330.00 target price (up previously from $300.00) on shares of Salesforce in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Northland Securities upgraded Salesforce from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their price target for the company from $270.00 to $400.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-seven have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Salesforce presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $325.36.

Salesforce Price Performance

NYSE:CRM traded down $3.01 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $322.25. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,250,383 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,310,329. The company has a market capitalization of $308.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.29. 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 has a fifty-two week low of $212.00 and a fifty-two week high of $348.86. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $286.61 and a 200-day moving average of $266.61.

Salesforce (NYSE:CRM - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The CRM provider reported $2.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $9.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.22 billion. Salesforce had a net margin of 15.44% and a return on equity of 12.01%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.63 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Salesforce will post 7.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Parker Harris sold 4,200 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.97, for a total transaction of $1,104,474.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 117,581 shares of the company's stock, valued at $30,920,275.57. This trade represents a 3.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Sundeep G. Reddy sold 413 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.29, for a total transaction of $117,824.77. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 7,006 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,998,741.74. The trade was a 5.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 144,373 shares of company stock worth $41,250,680. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Salesforce

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CRM. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Salesforce by 26.9% during the 1st quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,376,536 shares of the CRM provider's stock worth $4,329,925,000 after acquiring an additional 3,044,611 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Salesforce during the first quarter worth approximately $874,748,000. Veritas Asset Management LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Salesforce during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $733,805,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of Salesforce by 48.3% in the 2nd 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 buying an additional 1,922,674 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AMF Tjanstepension AB grew its position in shares of Salesforce by 376.1% in the 2nd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 1,442,453 shares of the CRM provider's stock valued at $370,873,000 after buying an additional 1,139,472 shares during 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.

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