Salesforce jumps 12% on earnings beat, Anthropic windfall
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- Salesforce shares surged 12% in extended trading after Q2 results crushed estimates, with adjusted EPS of $5.90 vs. $3.27 expected and revenue of $11.35B vs. $11.32B expected
- Net income jumped 87% YoY to $3.53B, boosted by a $2.6B gain on Salesforce's stake in Anthropic, which raised equity funding in May at a $965B valuation
- Free cash flow spiked 81% to $1.10B, well above the $643.2M StreetAccount consensus
- Agentforce AI products generated over $1.5B in annualized revenue, up 240% YoY from 200%+ growth the prior quarter — but CFO Robin Washington flagged 'headwinds and volatility' in integration and analytics software sales
- Salesforce raised full-year revenue guidance to $46.1B–$46.4B (implying 11% growth) and announced a new plugin for Anthropic's Claude that composes emails for salespeople
- Salesforce also announced a $1.6B U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs contract and plans to acquire customer service startup Fin for $3.6B, closing ahead of schedule in Q3
- CEO Marc Benioff dismissed 'SaaSpocalypse' fears, but Salesforce shares remained down 22% YTD against a 12% gain in the S&P 500
Why it matters: Benioff's 'SaaSpocalypse is not happening' pushback lands as Salesforce shares remain down 22% YTD against an S&P 500 gain of 12%. The $2.6B Anthropic windfall is a paper gain, not recurring revenue, and Agentforce's $1.5B annualized run rate remains a sliver of the company's $46B+ total revenue base.
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