Mar Vista Investment Partners, LLC, an investment management company, released the “Mar Vista Focus strategy” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the strategy returned +3.74% net of fees compared to +8.34% and +4.28% returns for The Russell 1000 Growth Index and the S&P 500 Index. The strategy’s performance was negatively impacted by the stock selection within the information technology, communication services, and consumer discretionary. Following a robust performance in the first six months, it appears that stocks are poised to enter the second half of the year with strong momentum. The picture is still favorable because of robust corporate profitability, decreasing inflation, and high enterprise spending. Kindly check the top 5 stocks of the strategy to know its best picks in 2024.
Mar Vista Focus strategy highlighted stocks like Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM), in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) offers Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology that brings companies and customers together. The one-month return of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) was 2.85%, and its shares gained 25.16% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On August 26, 2024, Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) stock closed at $265.28 per share with a market capitalization of $257.056 billion.
Mar Vista Focus strategy stated the following regarding Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Salesforce, Inc.’s (NYSE:CRM) stock came under pressure in Q2 as the company modestly missed Street expectations for software bookings and reduced its FY2025 subscription revenue guidance to “around 10%” year-to-year growth from “greater than 10%.” We believe Salesforce is experiencing cyclical pressures as software demand across the industry is pressured at the margin. This has led to longer sales cycles; smaller deal sizes and budgets being allocated away from enterprise software to emerging areas like generative AI. We continue to believe that Salesforce will see a tailwind to demand from its generative AI offerings as many AI use cases are found in front office software like customer relationship management. This, coupled with Salesforce’s treasure trove of customer data, positions it well to exploit the evolution of next-generation AI offerings.”
A customer service team in an office setting using the company’s Customer 360 platform to communicate with customers.
Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is in 8th position on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 117 hedge fund portfolios held Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) at the end of the second quarter which was 154 in the previous quarter. In the fiscal first quarter of 2025, Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) delivered $9.13 billion in revenue, an increase of 11% year over year. While we acknowledge the potential of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we discussed Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) and shared the list of best advertising stocks to buy according to short sellers. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.