Salesforce Soars on Anthropic Gain and Partnership
Salesforce's stock surged nearly 23% on Thursday after the software giant reported its fiscal second quarter results. The company's adjusted earnings per share came in at $5.90, a 103% year-over-year increase.
However, more than 40% of the quarter's reported profit didn't come from selling software itself. Instead, gains on strategic investments contributed $2.53 to the $5.90 figure. This includes a significant gain from Salesforce's stake in Anthropic, an artificial intelligence model developer worth about $5.1 billion.
The company's quarterly filing attributed $2.7 billion of the quarter's unrealized investment gains to its stake in Anthropic. The stake represented about 22% of Salesforce's portfolio at the end of January and about 45% by the end of July, due in part to Anthropic's valuation increase to $965 billion in May.
Excluding the gain, adjusted earnings per share grew about 16% year over year. The software business itself delivered a solid quarter, with revenue rising 11% year over year to $11.3 billion and subscription and support revenue up 12%. Adjusted operating income grew about 10%, but GAAP earnings per share of about $1.86 came in below the year-ago quarter's $1.96.