Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the customer relationship management software group, saw its shares jump roughly 11 to 12% in after-hours trading after second-quarter results comfortably beat Wall Street forecasts and management raised full-year guidance.
The move followed Wednesday’s regular-session close of $205.62, near recent lows after a roughly 20% decline so far this year on fears that AI agents would erode demand for its software. The after-hours reaction, which came once Wednesday’s results landed around 9pm UK time, pointed to an indicated price of roughly $228 to $230, well below the 52-week high of $267.75 but a marked reversal from recent weakness.
Salesforce reported second-quarter revenue of $11.35bn, up 11% year-on-year and ahead of the $11.32bn consensus, while adjusted earnings per share of $5.90 beat the $3.27 estimate. The company also raised full-year revenue guidance to $46.1bn-$46.4bn and lifted its non-GAAP earnings per share outlook to $16.67-$16.71. Alongside the results, Salesforce and Anthropic unveiled an expanded partnership called Claudeforce, integrating Anthropic’s Claude model into Salesforce’s Agentforce platform and Slack, due to enter open beta in September.
Adjusted earnings were inflated by a $2.6bn gain on Salesforce’s strategic investment portfolio, which includes its Anthropic stake, versus just $6m a year earlier — a gain separate from underlying operations, where operating income was roughly flat year-on-year. Separately, Agentforce and Data 360, Salesforce’s AI-linked products, saw combined annual recurring revenue near $4bn, up more than 210% year-on-year.
“We just delivered one of our best quarters ever, outperforming across every key metric,” said Marc Benioff, Salesforce’s chair and chief executive. “AI is delivering value across every layer of our platform.”
The scale of the after-hours move suggests markets are treating the AI-linked revenue growth as evidence against the disintermediation fears that had weighed on the shares this year, though the durability of that growth once the investment gain fades remains the key question for the stock going forward.