Burke Wealth Management, an investment management company, released its “Focused Growth Strategy” first-quarter 2026 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The Fund returned -10.6% in Q1 2026, significantly lagging the S&P 500’s -4.3% returns. The letter noted the quarter as the worst for equities since 2022, with strong corporate earnings being overshadowed by the Iran War and a spike in oil prices. The effects of the AI revolution increased concerns in the investment community. Despite these uncertainties, the firm believes that the strength of the companies in the portfolio positions it to navigate short-term uncertainties and capitalize on long-term opportunities presented by the AI revolution. In addition, you can check the Portfolio’s top five holdings to see its best picks for 2026.
In its first-quarter 2026 investor letter, Burke Wealth Management highlighted Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM). Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is a cloud computing company that offers Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology that brings companies and customers together. On June 23, 2026, Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) closed at $153.42 per share. One-month return of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) was -13.57%, and its shares lost 42.70% over the past 52 weeks. Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) has a market capitalization of $125.65 billion.
Burke Wealth Management stated the following regarding Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) in its Q1 2026 investor letter:
“Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM): As a sector, enterprise software stocks peaked at the end of 2024, had a terrible 2025 and an even worse start to 2026. There has been very little distinction between single solution product companies and platform companies that orchestrate workflows across an entire enterprise. Valuations are at 10-year lows, and the prevailing viewpoint is that AI is going to obviate the need for legacy enterprise software subscriptions either by replacing existing software with vibe-coded solutions or by destroying the per seat business model that these companies were built on by eliminating the seats (human employees). Every time Anthropic releases a new set of tools, it seems like enterprise software stocks fall 5%. We have tried to manage through this environment by consolidating around what we view to be best of breed platform companies across different segments of the enterprise software stack (the raw data layer (SNOW), cyber security (CRWD), and multi-cloud platform solutions (NOW, CRM). Unfortunately, our efforts to discriminate between business models and high grade our holdings have not worked as the broader market is doing no such thing at the present time. The fact that each of the enterprise software companies in our portfolio have beaten earnings estimates consistently over the past year and are forecasting revenue acceleration in 2026 has not mattered either. In fact, this has only served to increase our level of frustration with the stock action. Service Now and Crowdstrike grew operating profit over 25% in 20025 while Snowflake more than doubled its operating profit from a somewhat depressed base. Admittedly, Salesforce’s profit growth of 12% puts it in a different, and lesser, category than the others but none of these results would seem to warrant the 70%+ degradation in valuation that these stocks have endured over the past 15 months. ..” (Click here to read the full text)
Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is not on our list of 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds Heading Into 2026. According to our database, 101 hedge fund portfolios held Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) at the end of the first quarter, compared to 115 in the previous quarter. In the first quarter of fiscal 2027, Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) generated revenue of $11.13 billion, up 13% year over year on a nominal basis and 12% at constant currency. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) and shared the list of worst cloud stocks to buy according to short sellers. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2026 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.
