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- Salesforce increased its full-year view on artificial intelligence traction.
- The software company saw a $2.6 billion gain on strategic investments, thanks to its increasingly valuable stake in Anthropic.
Marc Benioff, chief executive officer of Salesforce, speaks during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 18, 2024.Halil Sagirkaya | Anadolu | Getty Images
Salesforce shares soared 12% in extended trading on Wednesday after the cloud software vendor reported results and issued guidance that surpassed Wall Street projections.
Here’s how the company did relative to LSEG consensus:
- Earnings per share: $5.90 adjusted. It is not immediately clear if the reported earnings are comparable to the LSEG consensus of $3.27.
- Revenue: $11.35 billion vs. $11.32 billion expected
Salesforce’s revenue increased 11% from a year earlier in the fiscal second quarter, which ended on July 31, according to a statement. Net income of $3.53 billion, or $4.29 a share, jumped 87% from $1.89 billion, or $1.96 a share a year ago.
The company pointed to a $2.6 billion gain on strategic investments from a stake in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic. In May Anthropic said it had raised equity funding that valued the company at $965 billion. Salesforce’s free cash flow spiked 81% to $1.10 billion, well above StreetAccount’s $643.2 million consensus. In recent weeks Alphabet and Microsoft have also flagged gains after investing in Anthropic.
For the fiscal third quarter, Salesforce sees $3.42 to $3.44 in adjusted earnings per share, and it said revenue should come in between $11.42 billion to $11.50 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG had anticipated $3.38 in adjusted earnings per share on $11.41 billion in revenue.
Salesforce now sees $46.1 billion to $46.4 billion in revenue for the full year, implying 11% growth at the middle of the range. LSEG’s consensus was $46.11 billion. In May, guidance called for $45.9 billion to $46.2 billion in revenue.
Also on Wednesday, Salesforce announced Claudeforce, a plugin for Anthropic’s Claude that can compose emails on behalf of salespeople, arm them with information and update records through chat.
During the quarter, Salesforce announced a $1.6 billion contract from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and revealed plans to acquire customer service startup Fin for $3.6 billion.
Annualized revenue from Agentforce AI products topped $1.5 billion, up 240% year over year. The growth rate a quarter earlier was over 200%.
Salesforce said it had $33.5 billion in current remaining performance obligation, a measure of revenue that is expected to be recognized in the next year. Analysts polled by StreetAccount had expected $33.22 billion.
As of Wednesday’s close, Salesforce shares were down 22% year to date, while the S&P 500 index has gained 12% in the same period. Investors have been going back and forth on how big of a threat generative artificial intelligence models are to staid software companies.
Executives will discuss the results with analysts on a conference call starting at at 5 p.m. ET.
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