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 14% 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
- 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.
For the fiscal third quarter, Salesforce said adjusted earnings will be between $3.42 and $3.44 per share, with $11.42 billion to $11.50 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by LSEG had anticipated $3.38 in adjusted EPS and $11.41 billion in revenue.
Salesforce now sees $16.67 to $16.71 in earnings per share for the full year on $46.1 billion to $46.4 billion in revenue, implying 11% growth at the middle of the range. The LSEG consensus showed $46.11 billion in revenue. In May, guidance called for $14.06 to $14.12 in fiscal 2027 adjusted earnings per share on $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.
