ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Sustainability Leaders Strategy” second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. U.S. stocks increased during a difficult quarter for diversified portfolios due to the market leadership remaining centered around a few mega-cap firms that were thought to be the major winners in the expanding AI industry. The benchmark Russell 3000 Index returned 3.22% in the quarter. The strategy underperformed the benchmark in the second quarter and had gains in four of 10 sectors in which it was invested, on an absolute basis. Overall stock selection detracted the most, mainly stock selection in the IT, consumer discretionary, health care, industrials, and real estate sectors. Please check the top 5 holdings of the strategy, to know its best pick in 2024.
ClearBridge Sustainability Leaders 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 9.50%, and its shares gained 10.74% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 12, 2024, Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) stock closed at $253.97 per share with a market capitalization of $246.097 billion.
ClearBridge Sustainability Leaders Strategy stated the following regarding Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“In IT, Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) shares were lower as its latest earnings report revealed slowing momentum and the company provided second-quarter guidance below consensus. Software spending by enterprises has slowed as companies have re-prioritized IT spending toward AI-related infrastructure, a phenomenon we believe is likely to prove cyclical and not structural.”
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, 154 hedge fund portfolios held Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) at the end of the first quarter which was 131 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 in nominal and constant currency. 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.
We discussed Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in another article and shared the list of best AI stocks for the second half of 2024. Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is in 4th position on the list. Oakmark Funds, another investment management company, included Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) to its portfolio during the second quarter 2024. 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.
