Anthropic boosts Zoom share price
Zoom Communications shares surged as much as 18% after the company projected stronger-than-anticipated sales growth and said that customers are paying for its expanded suite of office products.
Revenue will be as much as $5.09 billion in the fiscal year ending in January 2027, Zoom said in a statement Thursday.
The upper end of the range had previously been $5.08 billion, with analysts estimating $5.07 billion on average.
The maker of a hit videoconferencing tool, Zoom has worked to offer more office collaboration products, such as corporate phone systems and software for contact centres.
Many of these tools include AI features, which can be expensive to provide because they rely on models from firms like OpenAI.
Users paying for Zoom’s AI companion nearly tripled compared to the same quarter last year, chief executive officer Eric Yuan said in the statement.
The shares climbed as high as $113.73 on Friday, marking the biggest intraday gain since September 2020.
KeyBanc Capital Markets’ Jackson Ader was among analysts boosting their assessments of the stock. He increased his rating to sector weight from underweight.
The shares had already risen 12% this year through Thursday’s close, even as many software peers suffered declines.
The company has been buoyed by a stake in rapidly ascendant AI startup Anthropic PBC, according to Citigroup analyst Tyler Radke.
Average monthly churn among individuals and small businesses in the quarter was 3%, up from 2.9% in the prior quarter.
While this metric has been steady in the past year, these consumers have become a smaller part of Zoom’s business as the company turns its post-pandemic focus to larger, corporate clients.
For the quarter ended in April, sales climbed 5.5% to $1.24 billion. That just exceeded the average analyst estimate of $1.22 billion. Profit, excluding some items, was $1.55 a share.
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