Salesforce

Salesforce invests heavily in both organic growth and acquisitions. It consistently plows funds into R&D (innovation in cloud AI, integrations) and made large strategic purchases (e.g. Slack $27B, Tableau $16B). Some of these deals look expensive, and integrating large acquisitions carries risk.

On the shareholder-return side, Salesforce has a disciplined buyback and dividend program. They have returned ~$21B since inception, including $9.3B in FY25). This offsets some dilution and shows commitment to shareholder value. However, annual stock-based compensation (3.2B in FY25) dilutes equity, which we watch carefully.

Overall, we view capital allocation as solid: investment mainly funds durable growth opportunities and buybacks accelerate when the stock is below intrinsic value. We see no evidence of empire-building misuse of capital, but rather a balanced approach with moderate dilution.