Snowflake's blowout earnings and AI product growth supercharge its valuation

Snowflake Inc (NYSE:SNOW) , the American cloud data analytics company, saw its shares jump 23% in after-hours trading on Wednesday after it posted results that beat Wall Street expectations. The company reported adjusted earnings per share of 62 cents , well ahead of the 45 cents forecast by analysts. Revenue for the quarter came in at $1.55 billion, above the $1.48 billion consensus estimate. Total revenue rose 35% year on year for the three months to 31 July, which forms the group's fiscal second quarter. Losses narrow sharply Snowflake's net loss shrank to $191.7 million, or 55 cents per share , down from a loss of $297.9 million, or 89 cents per share, in the same period last year. AI coding tool drives momentum Investors were particularly encouraged by growth in CoCo, Snowflake's artificial intelligence coding agent, which helps developers write and manage software automatically. The number of accounts using CoCo rose by more than 2,000 during the quarter to reach 9,100. Guidance raised for the year ahead Snowflake said it now expects product revenue of $1.59 billion for the current quarter, comfortably above the $1.50 billion analysts had pencilled in. Management also lifted its full-year product revenue forecast to $6.07 billion, up from the $5.84 billion it had guided to in May. The company raised its projected adjusted operating margin to 14.5%, from an earlier estimate of 13.5%. Shares already up sharply this year Even before Wednesday's after-hours move, Snowflake shares had climbed 39% since the start of the year, far outpacing the S&P 500 index's roughly 12% gain over the same period.