Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.com, has sold some shares in his own company, 12, 500 at an average price of $58 as reported by Lulegacy. Salesforce has received upgrades from Pivotal Research, Mizuho and Piper Jaffray, which had an Overweight rating on the stock. Salesforce beat earnings estimates in its latest quarterly report by a penny and narrowly beat revenue estimates. However, its revenues were down over last year.
While Salesforce is still a stock backed by Wall Street, the software as a service sector, a place where Salesforce was a pioneer, has cooled off over last year. There was concern in the spring that the sector was overvalued with the plethora of software as a service IPOs. Box is expected to have its IPO next week, and it delayed its IPO after the tumble of companies in the sector last spring. The company sells file storage and collaboration tools and has raised $550 million. Box is making its IPO at a 40% lower valuation than what was planned last spring. The company has trimmed down expenses and is set for an IPO at a more modest valuation.
