Workday’s miserable year continues after soft revenue guidance sinks the stock

Workday slumped nearly 9% in after-hours trading Tuesday, and continued to languish in the red in early trading on Wednesday, after the HR and finance software company issued a lighter-than-expected subscription revenue outlook.

For the quarter ended January 31, subscription revenue — which makes up over 90% of total revenue — rose 15.7% year over year to $2.36 billion, in line with analysts’ estimates, while adjusted earnings per share of $2.47 topped the $2.32 expected.

However, guidance for the coming quarter, ending April 2026, came in a hair below analysts’ estimates, as did projections for fiscal 2027 subscription revenue of $9.93 billion to $9.95 billion, below the roughly $10 billion estimate on Wall Street.

The outlook comes amid broader AI-driven anxiety among software-as-a-service companies, with investors questioning whether generative-AI tools could displace traditional software vendors.

On the earnings call, CEO Aneel Bhusri pushed back on this narrative, arguing Workday’s domains are “really, really hard to build.” The company has been prioritizing investment in “agentic AI,” with its annualized revenue from AI products now topping $400 million.

Still, shares are now down ~45% year to date, marking the stock’s sharpest annual decline since going public in 2012. All told, shares are now 61% down from their all-time high.