Investment Performance Summary - The Large Cap Composite (Gross) achieved a quarterly return of 4.7% and a year-to-date return of 10.0% [3][10] - The Small Cap Composite (Gross) reported a quarterly return of 4.3% and a year-to-date return of 6.6% [16] - The Focus Composite (Gross) had a quarterly return of 3.8% and a year-to-date return of 7.3% [20] - The All Cap Composite (Gross) recorded a quarterly return of 5.7% and a year-to-date return of 9.9% [29] Company Contributions and Detractors - Medpace Holdings Inc. was a significant contributor to performance, with revenue growing at a mid-teens rate and operating earnings up 20% year-over-year [13][33] - Alphabet Inc. also contributed positively, benefiting from a favorable remedies decision in an antitrust case [14][34] - CarMax Inc. was identified as a material detractor, experiencing a 5% decline in retail volumes due to market volatility [15][19] Strategic Actions - Fiserv Inc. was purchased during the quarter, expected to generate over $5 billion in free cash flow, which will be used for share repurchases [11][31] - CBRE Group Inc. was sold to reallocate capital to more discounted businesses, despite its strong market position [12][32] - No new positions were added in the Small Cap and Focus strategies during the quarter [17][21] Market Conditions and Outlook - Stock price volatility was noted earlier in the year due to tariff-related concerns, leading to capital allocation towards stable value companies [8] - The overall market is perceived as not cheap, but the portfolios maintain a margin of safety with attractive price-to-value ratios [9][10] - The used car market remains volatile, but CarMax is expected to leverage its competitive advantages for long-term growth [15][19]

Core Viewpoint - Salesforce is positioned as the better investment choice compared to Oracle, driven by its accelerated growth in AI, unified platform strategy, and superior profitability growth prospects [19]. Group 1: Company Overview - Salesforce and Oracle are major players in the cloud enterprise software market, offering platforms for customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, database management, and AI-powered solutions [1][2]. - Both companies have significantly transformed business operations, customer relationships, and data management [2]. Group 2: Salesforce Analysis - Salesforce is the leader in the customer relationship management software market, consistently outperforming competitors like Microsoft and Oracle [3]. - The company has expanded its ecosystem through acquisitions, including Slack and Zoomin, to enhance its offerings beyond CRM into collaboration, data security, and AI automation [4]. - AI is central to Salesforce's growth strategy, with the launch of Einstein GPT in 2023 embedding generative AI capabilities across its platform [5]. - Salesforce's AI and Data Cloud revenues grew 120% year-over-year in fiscal 2025, with over 3,000 paid Agentforce deals closed within 90 days of launch [6]. - Despite a slowdown in overall revenue growth to 7.5% year-over-year in Q4 fiscal 2025 due to macroeconomic factors, adjusted earnings per share increased by 21.4%, indicating effective cost management [7]. Group 3: Oracle Analysis - Oracle's cloud infrastructure business saw a 49% year-over-year revenue growth in Q3 fiscal 2025, with demand for AI training GPUs increasing by 244% [8]. - The company launched AI Agent Studio to help businesses create and manage AI agents, building on existing AI capabilities in its Fusion Applications [9]. - Oracle's multi-cloud strategy is expanding, with its Database@Azure service growing 92% in Q3, indicating successful partnerships with major tech companies [10]. - However, Oracle faces challenges with rising capital expenditures, projected at $16 billion for the fiscal year, and supply chain delays affecting cloud capacity expansion [11][12]. - Overall revenue growth for Oracle was modest at 6.4% year-over-year in Q3, with non-GAAP EPS increasing by only 4.3%, missing consensus estimates [13]. Group 4: Earnings Estimates Comparison - Salesforce has a better earnings surprise history, surpassing consensus estimates three times in the last four quarters with an average surprise of 4.4% [14]. - In contrast, Oracle missed consensus estimates three times in the same period, with an average surprise of only 0.8% [16]. - Analysts are more optimistic about Salesforce's profitability, with its long-term expected earnings growth at 12.7%, compared to Oracle's 9.7% [18].