"The future? It's the marriage of deterministic enterprise apps with probabilistic AI that leads to 3 things: a redefined user experience that is prompt based, a greatly improved business process automation and execution platform with work done by agents and humans; and lastly, much deeper AI-generated insights."
— Aneel Bhusri
03Detailed Report
WDAY
Company WDAY
Period
Q4 2026
CurrencyUSD
Report TypeQuarterly Earnings
GeneratedMay 21, 2026
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Executive Summary
Workday delivered a solid Q4 FY2026 with 15% total revenue growth to $2.532 billion and 16% subscription growth to $2.360 billion, underscoring the durability of its cloud-based HR and finance platform. The quarter was marked by a meaningful contribution from AI-enabled offerings, including Sana Core and Sana Enterprise, and the company reaffirmed a longer-term trajectory of reaccelerated growth driven by agentic AI. Management stressed a shift toward organic agent development and a consumption-based model (Flex Credits), suggesting a multi-year path to higher growth and improved ROI for customers, even as near-term profitability is weighted toward AI investments.
Key highlights include a 12-month subscription backlog (cRPO) of $8.83 billion (up 15.8% YoY) and total subscription backlog of $28.1 billion (up 12%). Non-GAAP operating margins remained strong at 30.6% for Q4 and 29.6% for the full year, while GAAP margins are expected to be meaningfully lower due to accelerated AI investments. Free cash flow for the year was $2.78 billion, up 27%, and Workday returned a substantial amount of capital with $2.9 billion of share repurchases in FY2026. The company guided FY2027 subscription revenue to $9.925–$9.950 billion (12–13% growth) with non-GAAP margins around 30% and free cash flow guidance of approximately $3.18 billion, signaling a durable, higher-ROI growth profile anchored by AI-driven products and an expanded partner ecosystem.
Key Performance Indicators
Revenue
Increasing
2.53B
QoQ: 4.11% | YoY: 14.52%
Gross Profit
Increasing
1.92B
75.87% margin
QoQ: 4.35% | YoY: 14.89%
Operating Income
Increasing
304.00M
QoQ: 17.37% | YoY: 305.33%
Net Income
Increasing
145.00M
QoQ: -42.46% | YoY: 54.26%
EPS
Increasing
0.55
QoQ: -42.11% | YoY: 57.14%
Revenue Trend
Margin Analysis
Financial Highlights
Revenue and profitability:
- Q4 2026 total revenue: $2.532B, up 15% YoY; full-year revenue: $9.552B, up 13%.
- Q4 2026 subscription revenue: $2.360B, up 16%; FY26 subscription revenue: $8.833B, up 14%.
- Q4 2026 non-GAAP operating income: $774M, margin 30.6%; FY26 non-GAAP operating income: $2.82B, margin 29.6%.
- GAAP operating income was $304M in Q4 (12.0% GAAP operating margin implied by given data).
- Net income: Q4 $145M; full-year net income not explicitly provided in the data snippet.
- EPS (Non-GAAP): $0.55 (diluted), consistent with Q4.
Cash flow and liquidity:
- Q4 2026 operating cash flow: $1.28B; FY26 operating cash flow: $2.94B, up 19%.
- Free cash flow: Q4 $1.22B; FY26 $2.78B, up 27%.
- Share repurchases: Q4 $1.5B; FY26 $2.9B; remaining authorization $2.9B.
- Ending cash and short-term investments: $5.4B.
- Headcount: 21,070 as of Jan 31.
Backlog and bookings:
- 12-month subscription backlog (cRPO): $8.83B, up 15.8% YoY.
- Total subscription backlog: $28.1B, up 12%.
- Gross revenue retention: 97%; net expansion contributed roughly 60% of subscription revenue growth in FY26.
AI and product:
- AI actions in FY26: 1.7B across Workday platform (organic).
- Q4 AI-driven new ACV: >$100M, up >100% YoY; AI ARR from these solutions >$400M.
- Organic agent count: 12 new organically developed role-based agents now GA-ready; >400 customers using them; Self-Service Agent reduces HR case volume by >25% and boosts productivity by ~20%.
- Sana Core and Sana Enterprise launched to GA on Feb 15; integration of Sana into Workday stack completed.
- DIA contract contributed nearly 1 point to Q4 subscription growth; not expected to recur in Q1.
Guidance and outlook:
- FY27 subscription revenue guidance: ~$9.925–$9.950B, up 12–13% YoY.
- Q1 FY27 subscription revenue: ~$2.335B, up ~13% YoY.
- cRPO expected to rise 14.5–15.5% in Q1.
- Subscription revenue to grow ~5% sequentially in Q2.
- FY27 non-GAAP operating margin ~30%; GAAP margin ~18–19 percentage points lower than non-GAAP.
- FY27 tax rate: ~19%.
- FY27 operating cash flow target: ~$3.45B; capex ~$270M; free cash flow ~$3.18B, up ~15%.
- The company intends to prioritize agentic AI investments and GO-to-market expansion, potentially delaying margin expansion in the near term but aiming for a more durable, higher-growth profile longer term.
Income Statement
Metric
Value
YoY Change
QoQ Change
Revenue
2.53B
14.52%
4.11%
Gross Profit
1.92B
14.89%
4.35%
Operating Income
304.00M
305.33%
17.37%
Net Income
145.00M
54.26%
-42.46%
EPS
0.55
57.14%
-42.11%
Key Financial Ratios
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