Salesforce stock jumps 12% on AI growth and Anthropic investment gain

Salesforce shares soared 12% in extended trading on Wednesday after the cloud software vendor reported results and issued guidance that surpassed Wall Street projections.

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 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 . Salesforce expects the combination to close in the fiscal third quarter, ahead of schedule.

Annualized revenue from Agentforce AI products topped $1.5 billion, up 240% year over year. The growth rate a quarter earlier was over 200%. But the company saw "headwinds and volatility" while selling licenses for integration and analytics software, Robin Washington, Salesforce's chief operating and financial officer, on the company's Wednesday earnings call.