Zoom Shares Fall 6% as Weak Q3 Profit Outlook Overshadows Strong Q2 Beat and $3 Billion Anthropic Windfall

Zoom Communications shares tumbled roughly 6% to around $94.44 on Wednesday after the company issued a softer-than-expected third-quarter profit outlook that overshadowed a clean beat on second-quarter results and a raised full-year forecast. For Q2 FY2027, Zoom posted revenue of $1.22 billion, up 4.7% year over year, with non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.53 exceeding Wall Street estimates. Enterprise revenue was a bright spot, rising 7.8% to $787.5 million, though the online consumer segment showed only modest growth, a trend UBS flagged as a potential cap on future revenue upside.

The company raised its full-year revenue outlook to $5.085 billion to $5.10 billion and lifted its FY2027 EPS guidance to $6.08 to $6.12, but Q3 EPS guidance of $1.46 to $1.48 missed analyst estimates of around $1.50, and Q3 revenue guidance of $1.275 billion to $1.28 billion disappointed investors expecting more. Analyst reactions were mixed: Jefferies trimmed its price target to $116 from $118, while Morgan Stanley raised its target to $107 from $105, Bernstein lifted it to $108 from $103, and JP Morgan moved its target to $110 from $90. RBC Capital maintained its Outperform rating, citing AI and enterprise momentum, and Benchmark reiterated its Buy.

KeyBanc held a Sector Weight. A separate development offered a potential offset to the guidance disappointment: Zoom's early-2023 equity stake in AI startup Anthropic has grown to approximately $3.13 billion in value following the latest Anthropic funding round, making it an unexpected beneficiary of the AI investment boom. CEO comments during the earnings call framed the Anthropic relationship as central to a broader "Federated AI" strategy, though the near-term earnings miss remained the dominant driver of Wednesday's selloff.