Workday jumps on positive Q1 earnings under returning CEO
Workday spiked as much as 10% after-hours on Thursday as the B2B software-as-a-service company announced first-quarter results.
Here are the numbers:
Q1 revenue of $2.54 billion (compared to analyst estimates of $2.51 billion).
Q1 adjusted earnings per share of $2.66 (estimate: $2.51).
Q1 subscription revenue of $2.35 billion (estimate: $2.33 billion).
This was Workday’s first quarter with its returning CEO, cofounder Aneel Bhusri, who retook the reigns in February of this year. It was also a test to see how the company’s ongoing AI pivot has been going, as AI investment often comes with steep costs that may not initially be fully counterbalanced by savings through efficiency.
Workday has been trading down 40% since the beginning of 2026.
In February, the company also cut about 2% of its global workforce (~400 positions) — which follows larger-scale layoffs last year as the company leaned into AI.
The software company is also still litigating a nationwide class-action lawsuit that alleges it uses said AI to algorithmically discriminate against certain job seekers based on age, race, and disability (which the company disputes).
Looking ahead, the company said it projects 2027 subscription revenue outlook of $9.925 billion to $9.950 billion, on par with analyst estimates.
“Our focus remains on executing on our agentic AI roadmap while driving operational efficiencies as we scale,” said CFO Zane Rowe. The company said in a Q4 earnings call that AI was involved in roughly half of all customer base transactions.