San Francisco-based activist hedge fund firm ValueAct Capital, whose past targets have included Salesforce and Microsoft, scored a big gain from investors last year with the firm chalking up a 39% return, according to a report by Reuters.

The report cites an investor familiar with the numbers as confirming the gain, which ranks among the best achieved by activist firms in 2023, on the back of successful bets on investment company KKR, and tech company Insight Enterprises, as well as Salesforce.

According to Hedge Fund Research, 2023 was generally a good year for activism with the average activist hedge fund returning around 20%, a big turnaround from the previous year, when funds lost an average 16%.