GoKawiilSalesforce shares soared 18% in trading on Thursday 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 vs. $3.27 expected
$5.90 adjusted vs. $3.27 expected Revenue: $11.35 billion vs. $11.32 billion expected
On Wednesday, Salesforce reported revenue that 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 a plugin for Anthropic 's Claude that can compose emails on behalf of salespeople, arm them with information and update records through chat.