KeyCorp Reiterates “Buy” Rating for Salesforce.com Inc (CRM)

Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities researchers at KeyCorp in a report released on Wednesday. They currently have a $108.00 target price on the CRM provider’s stock. KeyCorp’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 14.71% from the company’s previous close.

The analysts wrote, “We are raising our revenue estimates by $120M for this year on higher growth assumptions for both Sales Cloud and Marketing Cloud segments.””

CRM has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Credit Suisse Group began coverage on Salesforce.com in a report on Tuesday, August 1st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $110.00 target price for the company. Zacks Investment Research upgraded Salesforce.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $102.00 target price (up previously from $100.00) on shares of Salesforce.com in a report on Friday, May 19th. Jefferies Group LLC restated a “hold” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Salesforce.com in a report on Monday, May 22nd. Finally, Benchmark Co. upped their target price on Salesforce.com from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and forty-six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $101.72.

Shares of Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) opened at 94.15 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $90.24 and its 200 day moving average is $86.50. Salesforce.com has a 12 month low of $66.43 and a 12 month high of $94.63. The firm’s market cap is $67.04 billion. Salesforce.com also saw some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Investors bought 23,180 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 439% compared to the average daily volume of 4,300 put options.

Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 22nd. The CRM provider reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $2.56 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. Salesforce.com had a positive return on equity of 1.83% and a negative net margin of 0.85%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 25.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.24 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Salesforce.com will post $1.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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In related news, Chairman Marc Benioff sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.73, for a total transaction of $857,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 34,195,300 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,931,563,069. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Mark J. Hawkins sold 490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.52, for a total value of $45,824.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 14,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,392,138.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 1,270,082 shares of company stock valued at $114,312,463. Company insiders own 6.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Gilbert & Cook Inc. acquired a new position in Salesforce.com during the second quarter worth about $251,000. KBC Group NV boosted its position in Salesforce.com by 16.9% in the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 521,167 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $42,991,000 after buying an additional 75,430 shares during the last quarter. Compton Capital Management Inc. RI acquired a new position in Salesforce.com during the first quarter worth about $436,000. Shell Asset Management Co. boosted its position in Salesforce.com by 0.7% in the first quarter. Shell Asset Management Co. now owns 72,793 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $6,005,000 after buying an additional 497 shares during the last quarter. Finally, 1st Global Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Salesforce.com by 35.1% in the first quarter. 1st Global Advisors Inc. now owns 15,029 shares of the CRM provider’s stock worth $1,240,000 after buying an additional 3,903 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.29% of the company’s stock.

About Salesforce.com

Salesforce.com, inc. is a provider of enterprise software, delivered through the cloud, with a focus on customer relationship management (CRM). The Company focuses on cloud, mobile, social, Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence technologies. The Company’s service offerings are configured and integrated with other platforms and enterprise applications.