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    If you’re planning on tax-loss harvesting, here’s the first number advisors say you should know

    Join this year’s FA 100 honorees Friday on CNBC’s Twitter Spaces, 11 am ET

    While tax-loss harvesting may offer a silver lining in a down market, investors need to estimate their taxable income to avoid “wasting” the loss.
    That’s because there’s a lesser-known 0% long-term capital gains tax bracket and, depending on earnings, you may not owe levies on all or part of your investment gains.

    Terry Vine | Getty Images

    There are few bright spots for investors in a down market. But tax-loss harvesting, which allows you to offset profits with losses, may offer a silver lining. Before attempting, however, you need to know your complete tax situation, experts say.
    Here’s why: There’s a lesser-known 0% long-term capital gains tax bracket, meaning it’s possible you won’t owe taxes on all or part of your investment gains even without loss harvesting.

    And the earnings thresholds are “actually pretty high,” said Andy Pratt, partner and director of investment strategy at Burney Company in Reston, Virginia, which ranked No. 9 on CNBC’s 2022 FA 100 list.

    More from FA 100:

    Here’s a look at more coverage of CNBC’s FA 100 list of top financial advisory firms for 2022:

    For 2022, you may fall into the 0% long-term capital gains rate with taxable income of $41,675 or less for single filers and $83,350 or less for married couples filing together.
    You calculate “taxable income” by subtracting the greater of the standard or itemized deductions from your adjusted gross income, which are your earnings minus so-called “above-the-line” deductions.

    Losses may be ‘wasted’ in the 0% bracket 

    With the S&P 500 down more than 20% in 2022, there may be ample opportunities to sell off losing assets.
    And if realized investment losses exceed realized profits, you can subtract up to $3,000 in losses from regular income per year, with the ability to carry losses above $3,000 forward to offset earnings in future years. 

    “In a bad year like this, there’s nothing quite as nice as having the government share some of your pain,” said Dale Brown, board chair at Salem Investment Counselors in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, which ranked sixth on the FA 100 list.

    But harvesting losses in the 0% bracket won’t pay off since investment gains aren’t taxable. Typically, it’s better to save the strategy for when earnings exceed the 0% taxable income threshold. Otherwise, “you’ve wasted a loss,” Brown said.  
    “When we’re doing tax loss harvesting, you’re not doing away with taxes,” Pratt explained. “You’re really just deferring taxes into the future,” which may be more costly in higher-earning years.

    There may be limits to carrying investment losses forward

    Another reason not to waste investment losses is there may be limits on how much you can carry forward to future years, depending on where you live and your age, experts say.
    While it’s possible to carry losses forward for federal taxes, you won’t have the same opportunity on every state return, limiting your ability to offset future gains, said John Dahlin, director of tax at IFA Taxes, a division of Index Fund Advisors in Irvine, California, which ranked No. 66 on the FA 100 list.
    And depending on the size of your losses, older investors need to consider their life expectancy, Pratt said. “That potential tax benefit will just vanish when the investor passes away,” he said. More

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    Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan is on hold. Here are key issues borrowers need to know

    In the biggest setback for Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, a court has temporarily blocked it from going forward.
    Here’s what borrowers need to know.

    Porquenostudios | Istock | Getty Images

    For those with student debt, the last few months may have given you whiplash.
    First, President Joe Biden said in August that he’d be forgiving up to $20,000 for millions of borrowers. But before much celebrating could happen, Republicans brought a slew of challenges to the policy, leaving it in jeopardy even as the application for the relief went live. Since mid-October, 22 million Americans have applied for forgiveness.

    Yet the biggest setback for the Biden administration’s sweeping plan came on Friday, when a U.S. appeals court temporarily blocked it from moving forward.
    Here’s what borrowers need to know about the development, and what it could mean for your student debt.

    Why is student loan forgiveness on hold?

    In September, attorneys general from Republican-led states — Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina — sued the Biden administration in an effort to stop its plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt.
    U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey in St. Louis ruled earlier this month that while the states had raised “important and significant challenges to the debt relief plan,” they ultimately lacked legal standing to pursue the case.
    More from Personal Finance:These colleges promise no student debtThis is the best time to apply for college financial aidColleges struggle with enrollment declines, underfunding

    The GOP-led states didn’t give up after their lawsuit was thrown out. They filed an appeal, and asked the court to stay the president’s plan, which was supposed to start unfolding as early as this week, while their request is considered.
    The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the states’ emergency petition, leaving the Biden administration unable to start forgiving any student debt for now.

    What is the states’ argument against forgiveness?

    The GOP-led states are accusing the president of overstepping his authority.
    They also say that the action would cause some private lenders to lose business because it would prompt millions of borrowers who have their federal loans held with these companies to consolidate their debt into the main federal student loan program.
    The U.S. Department of Education had said borrowers who hold these FFEL, or Federal Family Education Loans, can take this step to qualify for its relief.

    How likely is their challenge to be successful?

    The main obstacle for those hoping to foil the president’s action has been finding a plaintiff who can prove they’ve been harmed by the policy, experts say.
    “Such injury is needed to establish what courts call ‘standing,'” said Laurence Tribe, a Harvard law professor. “No individual or business or state is demonstrably injured the way private lenders would have been if, for instance, their loans to students had been canceled.”
    Legal experts say the GOP-led states will struggle to prove they have that necessary standing.

    The Education Department, in order to protect its broader loan forgiveness policy, has now said that FFEL borrowers need to have consolidated their loans by the end of September to be eligible. They can no longer do so to qualify.
    This will make it harder for the GOP states to make their case that the president’s plan will cost the private lenders a considerable amount of business, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
    “The state attorneys general lawsuit was the strongest of the lawsuits until the U.S. Department of Education pulled out the rug by eliminating their legal standing,” Kantrowitz said.

    How much could this delay forgiveness?

    All the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did on Friday was freeze the president’s plan until it decides whether or not to keep the plan on hold for the duration of the states’ appeal, explained Stephen I. Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law.
    “That’s not a big decision unto itself,” Vladeck said.
    The real question, he said, will be what happens later this week when the court rules “what the status quo should be while the states’ appeal runs its course.”
    “I think it’s an uphill battle for the states given the district court’s conclusion that it lacks standing,” Vladeck said.

    Can I still apply for forgiveness?

    Absolutely. The U.S. Department of Education is urging student loan borrowers to carry on seeking its relief.
    “Tonight’s temporary order does not prevent borrowers from applying for student debt relief at studentaid.gov,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement on Friday. “It also does not prevent us from reviewing these applications and preparing them for transmission to loan servicers.”

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    55% of working Americans feel they are behind on retirement savings. Here’s how to catch up

    High inflation has prompted many workers to put retirement savings on the back burner.
    But you could have regrets later if you neglect this long-term goal.

    Nicoletaionescu | Istock | Getty Images

    As it has become more difficult to stretch a dollar at the grocery store and gas pump, some Americans are pulling back on one key long-term goal: retirement savings.
    More than half of workers — 55% — said they feel they are behind on their retirement savings, a new survey from Bankrate.com finds.

    Just 25% of workers have increased their retirement savings this year compared to last year, according to the survey, which was taken in September and included 2,312 adults.
    About 34% of workers are contributing the same amount, and 16% are saving less. Additionally, 24% didn’t contribute to their retirement savings last year and are not saving this year either.

    Inflation has made it harder to save

    The overwhelming reason workers cited for not contributing more is inflation, with 54% of Bankrate survey respondents. That was followed by stagnant or reduced income, 24%; new expenses, 24%; debt repayment, 23%; keeping extra cash on hand, 22%; and market volatility, 18%. Of the remaining respondents, 7% said they don’t want or need to contribute more, while 5% cited other reasons.

    The results come as the IRS has just announced new contribution limits for retirement accounts in 2023. Workers will be able to contribute up to $22,500 in their 401(k) plans, up from $20,500 this year. The limit for individual retirement accounts will go up to $6,500, up from $6,000 this year.
    Those who are 50 and over can sock away even more — $7,500 extra in 401(k) plans in 2023, up from $6,500 this year, and $1,000 more in individual retirement accounts.

    Getting close to those limits may be tough for some workers.
    “The labor market might be very strong, but we have found that the pay is not keeping pace with inflation,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com.
    “Half of workers that got a pay increase said it wasn’t enough to keep up with the higher household expenses,” he said.
    Separately, a recent LendingClub report found 63% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, including almost half of those earning more than $100,000.
    “Being employed is no longer enough for the everyday American,” Anuj Nayar, LendingClub’s financial health officer, told CNBC.

    ‘Biggest financial regret’ is not starting to save early

    Working baby boomers ages 58 to 76 were most likely to say they feel behind on their retirement savings, with 71%. That was followed by 65% of Gen Xers ages 42 to 57 who said they need to catch up.
    Younger generations indicated they are more confident they are keeping up with their retirement savings, with 46% of millennials saying they are behind and just 30% of Gen Z workers.
    The results coincide with a key finding from past surveys that the top financial regret Americans have is that they did not start saving for retirement early enough, according to McBride.
    More from Personal Finance:63% of Americans now live paycheck to paycheckSocial Security to go up by more than $140 per month in 2023What to know about 2023 Medicare prescription drug plans
    “The closer you get to retirement, the more likely you are to say that that is your biggest financial regret,” McBride said.
    One key reason why older workers have more remorse is the remaining time they have in the work force is shorter, so there’s less time to make up for any savings they feel they missed.
    What’s more, while they may plan to work longer, circumstances outside of their control may cut their careers shorter.

    How to stay on track with retirement savings

    The good news is there are steps that workers of all ages may take steps to shore up their retirement confidence, according to McBride.
    That includes paying themselves first, utilizing tax-advantaged retirement savings options and capturing their full employer match, if one is available to them, according to McBride.
    “Successful saving is all about the habit,” McBride said.
    “The best way to establish that habit and maintain the habit is to automate your contributions,” he said, through payroll deduction into an employer sponsored plan or automatic monthly transfer into something like an IRA.
    That way, you won’t be tempted to use the money elsewhere.
    Plus, if you’re making pre-tax contributions, $1 saved will not reduce your net pay by $1.
    While younger workers with the longest time horizons have the greatest advantage, it still pays for those who are mid to late career to increase their deferral rates.
    Those who continue to invest in this bear market when stock prices are lower stand to reap the most rewards, according to McBride.
    “When you look back 10, 15 years from now, you’re going to be really glad you stuck with it in 2022,” he said.

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    63% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck — including nearly half of six-figure earners

    With persistent inflation eroding wage gains, the number of Americans living paycheck to paycheck is near a historic high, according to a recent report.
    Almost half of those earning more than $100,000 say they are just getting by.

    As rising prices continue to outpace wage gains, families are finding less cushion in their monthly budget.
    As of September, 63% of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck, according to a recent LendingClub report — near the 64% historic high hit in March. A year ago, the number of adults who felt strained was closer to 57%.

    “Consumers are not able to keep up with the pace that inflation is increasing,” said Anuj Nayar, LendingClub’s financial health officer.
    “Being employed is no longer enough for the everyday American,” Nayar said. “Wage growth has been inadequate, leaving more consumers than ever with little to nothing left over after managing monthly expenses.”
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    Inflation has steadily caused real wages to decline.
    The consumer price index, which measures the average change in prices for consumer goods and services, was up 8.2% year over year in the latest reading, still hovering near the highest levels since the early 1980s.

    Real average hourly earnings fell 0.1% for the month and are down 3% from a year ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    A separate report by Salary Finance found that two-thirds of working adults said they are worse off financially than they were a year ago.
    Even high-income earners are stretched too thin, LendingClub said. Of those earning more than six figures, 49% reported living paycheck to paycheck, a jump from the previous year’s 38%. 
    As a result, many Americans have dipped into their cash reserves or gone into debt.

    Financial distress headed to an all-time high

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    Inflation-adjusted college costs decline for the second-straight year

    This year’s increases in tuition and fees were very low by historic standards, according to a recent report.
    Adjusting for inflation, college costs effectively declined at community colleges and public and private four-year schools.

    College costs keep climbing.
    And yet, this year’s increases in tuition and fees were very low by historic standards, according to a new report by the College Board, which tracks trends in college pricing and student aid.

    For the 2022-23 academic year, average tuition and fees rose by 1.6% to $3,860 for students at two-year schools, 1.8% for in-state students at four-year public colleges, reaching $10,940, and 3.5% for students at four-year private institutions, to $39,400.
    After adjusting for inflation, average tuition and fees declined across the board.
    More from Personal Finance:These colleges promise no student debtThis is the best time to apply for college financial aidColleges struggle with enrollment declines, underfunding

    Historically low increase in tuition is ‘welcome news’

    “More colleges and universities raised tuition and fees this year than last year. However, the average increases in the public sectors are still low by historical standards,” said Jennifer Ma, senior policy research scientist at College Board and co-author of the report.
    The net price — or tuition and fees minus grants, scholarships and education tax benefits — was also lower after adjusting for inflation, the College Board found.

    “That is welcome news for families and students,” Ma said, especially as inflation causes real wages to decline.

    Still, college costs have already reached unsustainable levels, many experts say.
    Deep cuts in state funding for higher education have contributed to significant tuition increases and pushed more of the costs of college onto students, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research group based in Washington, D.C.
    Because so few families can shoulder the burden, they have increasingly turned to federal and private aid to help cover the tab, pushing outstanding student debt to $1.7 trillion.
    Some students have opted out of school entirely.

    11th year of declines in annual loan borrowing

    Annual education borrowing also declined in 2021-22, falling for the 11th consecutive year, the College Board said.
    Among graduates of four-year colleges, both the share of bachelor’s degree recipients who borrowed and the average amount borrowed declined. Overall, Students and parents took out $94.7 billion in education debt last year, down from $141.6 billion roughly a decade earlier when average federal loans per student peaked.
    However, part of the decrease in student debt is due to the number of undergraduate students unenrolling in college, who are often those that can least afford it.
    To make higher education more accessible, a growing number of institutions are also eliminating student loans altogether. 
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    Confessions of a personal finance reporter (Part Two): 3 more of my worst money mistakes

    I’ve made many money mistakes that I’m not proud of but that may serve as an object lesson for others looking to better manage their personal finances.
    I have no idea how much my less-than-ideal decisions have cost me, but I’m sure I’d have more money by now if I’d not made those blunders.

    Sarah O’Brien hard at work writing about personal finance.
    Salvatore Agostino

    One of the best benefits of being a personal finance reporter is my keen ability to recognize the many money mistakes I’ve made in my life.
    I’ve already divulged a few in the first iteration of this confessional two years ago. While some of my blunders have been worse than others, they all make me cringe — and the ones below probably will make some readers facepalm. Others of you may relate.

    Either way, my hope is that sharing these can help someone else avoid the same mistakes — which come with potential long-term consequences that aren’t particularly good. It’s hard to calculate the cost of my flubs over the course of my Generation X adulthood, but suffice it to say I’d have more money if I had made better decisions.
    More from Personal Finance:Here’s how to reduce the sting of inflationHow to avoid buying a flood-damaged carHere are new income tax brackets for 2023
    Here are a few gems, in no particular order.

    I tried to time the stock market because I ‘knew’ where it was headed

    I was at least a couple decades into adulthood when I decided I could see into the future. That is, I just knew the stock market was on the verge of dropping and would stay down for a while.
    This crystal ball-reading talent emerged as I rolled over money from an old 401(k) into my then-current retirement account. I confidently put the rolled-over funds in a money market account (earning nearly 0%) so I could buy stocks during the market drop that was imminent and therefore be positioned to capture gains when the market went back up.

    So, of course, stocks headed higher in the days and weeks that followed, as I waited for the big drop.
    That didn’t materialize.
    I waited months. By the time I actually moved the money into a stock-heavy target date fund — not because the market had tanked, but because by that point I had developed fear of missing out — stocks had continued climbing.
    By keeping my money sidelined, I missed out on those gains — as well as any compounding interest the funds would have generated, both during those months of sitting in cash and in the future. 

    I sought investing advice from a random co-worker

    The first time I enrolled in a 401(k) plan in young adulthood, I had only a basic understanding of investing.
    That is, I knew that the stock market generally rose over time and was a good place to put long-term savings, such as for retirement. The specifics, though? Not so much.
    So when I had to choose from a lineup of funds for where to direct my 401(k) contributions, I did some research: I asked a co-worker near me which fund she was choosing. She rattled off the name of it. I told her it sounded good so that’s what I decided to go with, too.
    “Wait a minute,” she said. “I don’t want to be responsible for ruining your retirement if your investments blow up.” I dismissed the notion with a wave of my hand and assured her that she was the smartest person I knew.

    Now, this was long enough ago that I have no memory of the fund’s performance or my account balance when I eventually moved the money to another retirement account.
    But that’s kind of the point: I had no idea what I was invested in.
    For all I knew, the fund I picked was in “safe” investments (U.S. Treasury bonds, cash) that may not keep pace with inflation and not provide the kind of long-term growth that stocks would have. I also didn’t know what the fund was going to cost me every year in fees.
    In other words, I had exactly zero idea whether it was at all appropriate for my individual situation.

    What could be that wrong with a house?

    I’ve been involved in five house purchases as an adult. One of them was being sold “as is.”
    A friend of mine said at the time, “Whatever you do, make sure you get a home inspection before you buy it.”
    I assured her I would and then promptly decided to ignore her sage advice. The seller wasn’t going to fix anything, I reasoned, so what was the point of an inspection? After all, I had looked closely during my two pre-purchase visits to the house and nothing major jumped out at me.
    Well, let me tell you in case you don’t already know this: There are a lot of things that can be wrong with a house and its property that aren’t immediately visible. And depending on the specifics, fixing them can be really costly.
    While I don’t think getting an inspection before purchasing that particular house would have changed my mind about buying it, it very well could have resulted in more negotiating power on the price — and, in the process, saved a boatload in interest because it would have been calculated on a lower mortgage amount.

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    Should you apply early to college? Here’s what the experts say about this ‘strategic game’

    Early decision and early action deadlines are coming up.
    Applying early may improve your odds of acceptance, but there are other factors to consider, especially when it comes to financial aid.

    When it comes to getting into college, every little bit helps.
    Often college hopefuls turn to applying early to their top school to gain that edge. By demonstrating a preference to a particular college, studies have shown, an early application can give you a leg up, which goes a long way in the hyper-competitive world of college admissions.

    “The cohort of students who are applying and earning admission early has skyrocketed,” said Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief and author of “The Best 388 Colleges.”
    But for many of these students, applying early may be less about where they really want to go and more about where they think they have the best chances of getting in, according to Jeff Selingo, the author of “Who Gets in and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions.”
    “It’s turned it into a strategic game,” he said.

    What to know about early action versus early decision

    Whether it’s nonbinding early action or early decision, which is binding, the deadlines for these types of applications are typically Nov. 1 or Nov.15 for a December decision, or even earlier for rolling admission.
    “A lot of people view early action or early decision as interchangeable,” said Eric Greenberg, president of Greenberg Educational Group, a New York-based consulting firm. However, “early action, in certain cases, makes no difference in admission.”

    Early decision, on the other hand, can “help leverage someone’s admissions chances.”
    More from Personal Finance:These colleges promise no student debtThis is the best time to apply for college financial aidColleges struggle with enrollment declines, underfunding

    Early applicants tend to be ‘paying customers’

    For schools, offering students an option to apply early has clear advantages.
    “It’s a significant win for the college or university,” Franek said.
    For starters, increasing the likelihood that a student will say yes improves a college’s yield — or the percent of students who choose to enroll after being admitted — which is an important statistic for schools.
    In addition, getting a head start on the makeup of the freshman class helps admissions officers balance out enrollment needs with financial aid requests.
    Furthermore, “most of those students are less concerned about their financial aid package,” Franek said. “These are paying customers.”

    It’s a significant win for the college or university.

    Robert Franek
    editor-in-chief of The Princeton Review

    More schools — especially selective private colleges — now offer an early application, and those institutions accept more students ahead of the regular decision deadline, Franek said.
    Of the schools on The Princeton Review’s Best Colleges list, 200 out of the 388 have an early action or early decision option in the beginning of November. (Some schools also offer another option, called Early Decision II, which is due in January.)
    At those colleges, including Emory, Colgate, Swarthmore, Tulane, Middlebury and Washington University in St. Louis, as many as 50% or 60% of the freshman class comes from the early application pool, Franek said, although it could be even more than that.
    At Pitzer College in Claremont, California, for example, 79% of 2020’s freshman class was admitted early.

    Key factors to consider before you apply early

    More often, it’s college-bound seniors with access to expert college counseling that are using early decision to better their chances of getting in.
    “This is difficult to reconcile because these are students that are often getting great advice and have the financial wherewithal,” Franek said. “Other students may not know about this channel or how to navigate it.”
    But despite the possibility of improving your odds of acceptance, there are other factors to consider as well, especially when it comes to financial aid.
    With cost now the No. 1 factor when choosing a college for a lot of people, it’s the early bird that benefits, because some financial aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, or from programs with limited funds. The earlier families apply, the better the chance to be in line for that aid, according to Rick Castellano, spokesman for Sallie Mae.

    “If someone is applying early decision or early action and gets in, at that point in the calendar there’s more money available,” Greenberg said. “There’s less and less money as you go along.”
    However, committing to only one institution would forgo the chance to compare different packages from other schools — although some colleges may let you off the hook if your early acceptance offer falls short of your needs. (Typically, a “better” offer includes more grant and scholarship money and fewer loans.)

    Many students are not ready to make that commitment.

    Eric Greenberg
    president of Greenberg Educational Group

    Applying early also means students have less time to work on their application, compare different types of colleges, visit campuses and prep and sit for standardized tests.
    “We strongly recommend if a student is going to apply early decision that they visit the campus once or twice, even do an overnight to get the full vibe,” Greenberg said.
    Still, students shouldn’t feel pressured if they haven’t zeroed in on a top choice, he added. “Many students are not ready to make that commitment.”
    Some high school seniors could benefit by spending more time choosing a school, Selingo also advised.
    That is true especially “if they haven’t had a chance to visit college campuses” or if money’s a concern and “comparing financial aid offers is really important.” Then it may be better to apply regular decision, he said.
    “A student should wait if they need more time to think about the best fit,” Selingo said.
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    Two potential opportunities for value creation emerge as Starboard takes a stake in Salesforce

    Gary Burchell | Getty Images

    Company: Salesforce (CRM)

    Business: Salesforce is a global leader in customer relationship management (CRM) technology that brings companies and their clients together. It was founded in 1999 and is a pioneer in the cloud software space. It started as a tool to help enable sales teams to increase their productivity while also improving the end customer experience. Over the last 20 years, they have expanded into other areas to help companies connect with and better serve customers, including Sales Cloud, Marketing & Commerce Cloud, Platform & Other, Integration Cloud, Analytics Cloud and Service Cloud.
    Stock Market Value: $160.1B ($160.17 per share)

    Activist: Starboard Value

    Percentage Ownership: n/a
    Average Cost: n/a
    Activist Commentary: Starboard is a very successful activist investor and has extensive experience helping companies focus on operational efficiency and margin improvement. Starboard also has a successful track record in the information technology sector. In 48 prior engagements, it has a return of 34.33% versus 13.75% for the S&P 500 over the same period.

    What’s Happening?

    On Oct. 18, Starboard Value announced that it took a position in Salesforce.

    Behind the Scenes

    Starboard views Salesforce as a high quality and sticky business at an attractive valuation with the potential for significant value creation through a better balance of growth and profitability. Salesforce’s vision and leading market position has allowed it to grow revenue at a roughly 38% compound annual growth rate over the last 20+ years. It is a market leader in several large and fast-growing markets (No. 1 or No. 2 market share in seven markets with 8.5% to 18.7% growth rates). Despite this, they have underperformed peers, the technology sector and broader market over the past three years and are valued significantly below the peer median multiple on forward revenue (3.8x vs. 6.7x for peers) and free cash flow expectations (18.7x vs. 22x for peers).

    This valuation discount can be largely attributed to their subpar mix of growth and profitability. Salesforce peers are operating at a “rule of 50” – average revenue growth plus adjusted operating margins of peers equals 49.4. Salesforce currently has a revenue growth rate of 17.0% and 20.4% operating margins, which brings it to 37.4 combined. Starboard has had extensive experience with growth companies that begin to see slowing growth rates and need to either regain that growth and/or focus on margins.
    The good news here is that Salesforce has a refreshed management team that is focused on improving the company’s growth and profitability. Brian Millham was appointed president and chief operating officer in August 2022. Bret Taylor was appointed co-CEO in November 2021, and Amy Weaver was appointed as president and chief financial officer in February 2021. At their September 2022 Investor Day, Salesforce announced new revenue targets, a commitment to drive profitable growth and opportunities for operating margin and free cash flow. At this Investor Day, they also made their first specific margin target in history: 25%. Shortly before the Investor Day, during the second-quarter earnings report in August, Salesforce announced its first-ever share repurchase program. However, this margin target is below its peers. Even if they were to hit that target, this would only bring them to a growth + margin of 42. Starboard thinks they can do better, and we agree, especially with Starboard’s help.
    Another opportunity for value creation is capital allocation. Through FY2026, Salesforce will have an additional $20 billion to $25 billion of cash to deploy on either value accretive M&A or further capital return, beyond the $10 billion share repurchase program. Starboard has extensive experience in helping companies optimize growth, margins and capital allocation, typically from a board level. Often the best form of activism is when a good activist gets on the board of a good company and works with management to optimize operations and balance sheet. This takes no more than one or two directors, and that is what we think would be best for shareholders here. At the very least, Starboard will be an active shareholder in this investment.
    Interestingly, on Oct.18, Inclusive Capital also disclosed a 1 million share (0.1%) stake in Salesforce. Inclusive noted that they are interested in the stakeholder model at the company and expressed their belief that Salesforce is very customer-centric – they create loyal customers because they are training them on how to use different tools, upscale and enhance human capital. Inclusive is an impact-oriented investor and pointed out that the company has a new product that was recently announced called the Salesforce Net Zero Cloud, an emissions tracking, carbon counting tool which helps companies manage sustainability data. This product was launched in partnership with Arcadia, a tech company that grants access to data focused on fighting the climate crisis. Inclusive noted that while it is certainly not in a group with Starboard, it agrees with Starboard’s financial analysis and path to profitability.
    Ken Squire is the founder and president of 13D Monitor, an institutional research service on shareholder activism, and he is the founder and portfolio manager of the 13D Activist Fund, a mutual fund that invests in a portfolio of activist 13D investments. Squire is also the creator of the AESG™ investment category, an activist investment style focused on improving ESG practices of portfolio companies.

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