# Workday (WDAY.US)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/WDAY

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:33:02.911Z. Financial observations: FY2010–FY2026.

Listing currency: USD. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: $196.63 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 0 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- more than 2 net loss years

- negative average operating margin

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 0

- Years with a net loss: 6

- Operating margin variation: 1.66×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -0.22×

- FY2018: -0.14×

- FY2019: -0.16×

- FY2020: -0.14×

- FY2021: -0.06×

- FY2022: -0.02×

- FY2023: -0.04×

- FY2024: 0.03×

- FY2025: 0.05×

- FY2026: 0.11×

### moat: fail

- Years with nonpositive invested capital use equity plus debt and leases; positive earnings with no positive capital are shown above 100%.

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- ROIC, median of available years: -11.6%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: -135.6%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: -3.4 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 72.2%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 75.6%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 3

- Capital spending / revenue: 5.9%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: -4.3%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -15.4%

- FY2018: -7.8%

- FY2019: -6447.0%

- FY2020: -135.6%

- FY2021: -122.3%

- FY2022: -75.5%

- FY2023: -2.0%

- FY2024: 25.5%

- FY2025: 38.0%

- FY2026: 73.7%

### economics: pass

- Owner earnings / net income, 5-yr: 1.16×

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: $2.6B

- Net income, five-year total: $2.3B

- Return on incremental invested capital: 58.7%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: -0.0 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: -1.1 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: 22.3%

Chart: Annual owner cash / profit; fiscal year observations.

- FY2022: 3.47×

- FY2023: 0.99×

- FY2024: 1.03×

- FY2025: 1.10×

- FY2026: 1.27×

### management: fail

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2017 to 2026 (9 years)

- buybacks leaned toward cheaper years (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: -15.4% vs 38.0%

- Per-share earnings: -1.55 to 2.58 (three-year endpoint medians)

- five-year and ten-year diluted share growth both above threshold

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: 3.5%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: 2.5%

- Market cap gain: $31B

- Cumulative retained earnings: $1.0B

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: 3.5%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 2.5%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2017

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2026

- Per-share value change: $4.13

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: -$1.55

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: $2.58

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): 0.40

- Average buyback yield: 2.0%

- Buyback history: 4 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: No

- Acquisition spending: $6.1B

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: $375M

- ROIC, first three-year median: -15.4%

- ROIC, last three-year median: 38.0%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -$1.94

- FY2018: -$1.55

- FY2019: -$1.93

- FY2020: -$2.12

- FY2021: -$1.19

- FY2022: $0.11

- FY2023: -$1.44

- FY2024: $5.21

- FY2025: $1.95

- FY2026: $2.58

### accounting: pass

- stock compensation exceeds 15% of operating cash flow

- Sloan accruals: -12.4%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 1.03×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 55.3%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Operating cash / earnings: 4.24×

- Accounting red flags: 1

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.76×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: -23.2%

- FY2018: -15.9%

- FY2019: -18.6%

- FY2020: -19.7%

- FY2021: -17.8%

- FY2022: -15.4%

- FY2023: -15.0%

- FY2024: -4.7%

- FY2025: -10.8%

- FY2026: -12.4%

## Holders

- [Matthew McLennan](https://gigainvestors.com/FE): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

- [Bill Nygren](https://gigainvestors.com/HA): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

- [Richard Pzena](https://gigainvestors.com/PIM): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

- [Arnold Van Den Berg](https://gigainvestors.com/VAN): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

## Price story

Down 33% since Feb 2024 · "Workday forecasts 2027 subscription revenue below estimates, shares fall" (finance.yahoo.com, Feb 2026) · sales +13.1%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:50.905Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

- 2025-09-17: Workday AI Push Signals Durable Growth And Sharper Margins Ahead ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/workday-ai-push-signals-durable-155829978.html))

- 2025-11-26: Workday's Weak Organic Guidance Clouds Strong Third Quarter, Oppenheimer Says ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/workday-apos-weak-organic-guidance-205822936.html))

- 2026-02-24: Workday forecasts 2027 subscription revenue below estimates, shares fall ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/workday-forecasts-2027-annual-subscription-210922817.html))

- 2026-03-27: How The Workday (WDAY) Story Is Shifting Toward AI Investment And Slower Growth Expectations ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/workday-wday-story-shifting-toward-110523429.html))

- 2026-05-21: Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Beats Q1 CY2026 Sales Expectations, Stock Jumps 10.8% ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/workday-nasdaq-wday-beats-q1-200900630.html))

- 2026-08-28: WDAY Q2 Earnings Beat Estimates on Subscription Growth, Margin Gains ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/wday-q2-earnings-beat-estimates-143300884.html))

### Sales · FY2025–2026

sales +13.1%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1327811/000132781126000014/wday-20260131.htm; observed 2026-03-06.

- FY2017: $1.6B 

- FY2018: $2.1B 

- FY2019: $2.8B 

- FY2020: $3.6B 

- FY2021: $4.3B 

- FY2022: $5.1B 

- FY2023: $6.2B 

- FY2024: $7.3B 

- FY2025: $8.4B 

- FY2026: $9.6B 

### Gross margin · FY2026

gross margin 75.7%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1327811/000132781126000014/wday-20260131.htm; observed 2026-03-06.

- FY2017: 69.3% 

- FY2018: 70.6% 

- FY2019: 70.4% 

- FY2020: 70.6% 

- FY2021: 72.3% 

- FY2022: 72.2% 

- FY2023: 72.5% 

- FY2024: 75.6% 

- FY2025: 75.5% 

- FY2026: 75.7% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in software application; annual sales are USD 9.6 billion.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1327811/000132781126000014/wday-20260131.htm (filed 2026-03-06); FY2026: revenue 9552000000; grossProfit 7231000000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); WDAY.US: Workday, Inc. provides enterprise cloud applications in the United States and internationally. The company offers a suite of financial management applications to maintain accounting information; manage financial processes, such as payables and receivables; identify real-time financial, operational, and management insights; perform financial consolidation; reduce time-to-close; promote internal control and auditability; and achieve consistency across finance operations. It also provides spend management solutions that help organizations to streamline supplier selection and contract management, build and execute sourcing events, such as requests for proposals, and manage indirect spend; expense management solutions to submit and approve expenses; and a suite of human capital management applications that enables HR teams to hire, onboard, pay, develop, reskill, and provide employee experiences. In addition, the company offers planning applications. Further, it provides supply chain and inventory solutions to healthcare organizations; solutions to manage the end-to-end student and faculty lifecycle; Workday Extend for customers and their developers to build custom applications. The company serves the professional and business services, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, media, education, government, technology, media, retail, and hospitality industries. It sells its solutions through its direct sales organization. The company was formerly known as North Tahoe Power Tools, Inc. and changed its name to Workday, Inc. in July 2005. Workday, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Pleasanton, California.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 75.5% to 75.7% during 2024–26; it lost 11.6% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-06); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 75.6%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-06); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 75.5%.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1327811/000132781126000014/wday-20260131.htm (filed 2026-03-06); FY2026: grossProfit / revenue = 75.7%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-06); 10-year return on capital observations [[2017,-0.15402162635537436],[2018,-0.07798440221908319],[2019,-64.46967764664436],[2020,-1.3561025378108178],[2021,-1.2227119118919694],[2022,-0.75544932953872],[2023,-0.019852670500004756],[2024,0.2545201668984701],[2025,0.3797417707249695],[2026,0.7372141294388241]]; median -0.11600301428722878. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Can it raise prices

Kept about a 72% gross margin through 2022 cost inflation.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1327811/000132781126000014/wday-20260131.htm (filed 2026-03-06); Gross margin observations: [[2021,0.7225259124834761],[2022,0.7221249270286048],[2023,0.724903474903475]]; range within 2 percentage points.

### Where the cash goes

Paid no dividends in 10 years; bought back USD 2.9 billion of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-06); FY2022: growth capex 0; upkeep 272274000; owner earnings 100726000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-06); FY2024: growth capex 0; upkeep 238000000; owner earnings 1425000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-06); FY2025: growth capex 0; upkeep 272000000; owner earnings 580000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1327811/000132781126000014/wday-20260131.htm (filed 2026-03-06); FY2026: growth capex 0; upkeep 162000000; owner earnings 878000000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-06); Dividend observations: [[2017,0],[2018,0],[2019,0],[2020,0],[2021,0],[2022,0],[2023,0],[2024,0],[2025,0],[2026,0]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1327811/000132781126000014/wday-20260131.htm (filed 2026-03-06); FY2026: cash repurchases 2895000000 USD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 2.1% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); WDAY.US SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 2.109 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What could break it

"Our future success depends on the rate of customer subscription renewals" (SEC filing, Mar 2026)

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1327811/000132781126000014/wday-20260131.htm (filed 2026-03-06); Our future success depends on the rate of customer subscription renewals

### What the price says

The price is 5.5 times annual sales.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-06); Closing price 196.63 USD; reporting-to-trading FX 1; FY2026 annual sales per share 35.626237799169765; price multiple 5.519246828936349. FY2026 cash earnings/share 3.274689780953837. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (USD per share)

- 2016-10: $86.68 per share

- 2016-11: $84.32 per share

- 2016-12: $66.09 per share

- 2017-01: $83.09 per share

- 2017-02: $82.93 per share

- 2017-03: $83.28 per share

- 2017-04: $87.40 per share

- 2017-05: $99.98 per share

- 2017-06: $97.00 per share

- 2017-07: $102.11 per share

- 2017-08: $109.69 per share

- 2017-09: $105.39 per share

- 2017-10: $110.99 per share

- 2017-11: $103.00 per share

- 2017-12: $101.74 per share

- 2018-01: $119.89 per share

- 2018-02: $126.67 per share

- 2018-03: $127.11 per share

- 2018-04: $124.84 per share

- 2018-05: $130.96 per share

- 2018-06: $121.12 per share

- 2018-07: $124.02 per share

- 2018-08: $154.54 per share

- 2018-09: $145.98 per share

- 2018-10: $133.02 per share

- 2018-11: $164.00 per share

- 2018-12: $159.68 per share

- 2019-01: $181.53 per share

- 2019-02: $197.93 per share

- 2019-03: $192.85 per share

- 2019-04: $205.63 per share

- 2019-05: $204.12 per share

- 2019-06: $205.58 per share

- 2019-07: $199.98 per share

- 2019-08: $177.28 per share

- 2019-09: $169.96 per share

- 2019-10: $162.16 per share

- 2019-11: $179.12 per share

- 2019-12: $164.45 per share

- 2020-01: $184.63 per share

- 2020-02: $173.25 per share

- 2020-03: $130.22 per share

- 2020-04: $153.90 per share

- 2020-05: $183.43 per share

- 2020-06: $187.36 per share

- 2020-07: $180.92 per share

- 2020-08: $239.71 per share

- 2020-09: $215.13 per share

- 2020-10: $210.12 per share

- 2020-11: $224.79 per share

- 2020-12: $239.61 per share

- 2021-01: $227.53 per share

- 2021-02: $245.18 per share

- 2021-03: $248.43 per share

- 2021-04: $247.00 per share

- 2021-05: $228.72 per share

- 2021-06: $238.74 per share

- 2021-07: $234.40 per share

- 2021-08: $273.16 per share

- 2021-09: $249.89 per share

- 2021-10: $289.98 per share

- 2021-11: $274.23 per share

- 2021-12: $273.18 per share

- 2022-01: $253.01 per share

- 2022-02: $229.05 per share

- 2022-03: $239.46 per share

- 2022-04: $206.70 per share

- 2022-05: $156.30 per share

- 2022-06: $139.58 per share

- 2022-07: $155.10 per share

- 2022-08: $164.56 per share

- 2022-09: $152.22 per share

- 2022-10: $155.82 per share

- 2022-11: $167.90 per share

- 2022-12: $167.33 per share

- 2023-01: $181.43 per share

- 2023-02: $185.47 per share

- 2023-03: $206.54 per share

- 2023-04: $186.14 per share

- 2023-05: $211.99 per share

- 2023-06: $225.89 per share

- 2023-07: $237.13 per share

- 2023-08: $244.50 per share

- 2023-09: $214.85 per share

- 2023-10: $211.71 per share

- 2023-11: $270.72 per share

- 2023-12: $276.06 per share

- 2024-01: $291.07 per share

- 2024-02: $294.66 per share

- 2024-03: $272.75 per share

- 2024-04: $244.73 per share

- 2024-05: $211.45 per share

- 2024-06: $223.56 per share

- 2024-07: $227.12 per share

- 2024-08: $263.19 per share

- 2024-09: $244.41 per share

- 2024-10: $233.85 per share

- 2024-11: $249.99 per share

- 2024-12: $258.03 per share

- 2025-01: $262.06 per share

- 2025-02: $263.34 per share

- 2025-03: $233.53 per share

- 2025-04: $245.00 per share

- 2025-05: $247.71 per share

- 2025-06: $240.00 per share

- 2025-07: $229.38 per share

- 2025-08: $230.82 per share

- 2025-09: $240.73 per share

- 2025-10: $239.92 per share

- 2025-11: $215.62 per share

- 2025-12: $214.78 per share

- 2026-01: $175.63 per share

- 2026-02: $133.76 per share

- 2026-03: $129.92 per share

- 2026-04: $122.40 per share

- 2026-05: $146.19 per share

- 2026-06: $122.42 per share

- 2026-07: $160.34 per share

- 2026-08: $197.45 per share

- 2026-09: $190.46 per share

- 2026-10: $186.02 per share

## Annual estimated value (USD per share)

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original 10-K filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1327811/000132781126000014/wday-20260131.htm); period 2026-01-31, filed 2026-03-06.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.