Workday, Inc. · WDAY · FY2027 Q1 · Calendar Q2 2026

Workday Q1 FY27: AI Agent Surge Drives Strongest New ACV Growth in Five Years, Margins Expand

Workday's Q1 FY27 results showed its AI-first strategy translating into measurable commercial traction, with AI agent ARR approaching $500M and the strongest new ACV growth in five years. The company beat consensus on both EPS ($2.66 vs. $2.51) and revenue ($2.54B vs. $2.52B), expanded non-GAAP operating margin to 31.8%, and raised FY27 margin guidance. However, subscription revenue growth decelerated to 14% from 16% in the prior quarter, and the stock's initial 5.2% post-earnings pop was followed by a 10.2% drift lower, suggesting investors are weighing AI monetization strength against a decelerating top line.

Reported After market closeNASDAQTechnology $44.01B market cap
100quality score

Company context

Snapshot as of publication

Workday, Inc. delivers comprehensive, cloud-hosted enterprise software solutions to clients worldwide. These platforms empower organizations to strategize, operate, examine performance, integrate with existing systems, and oversee their overall business functions. A core offering includes a robust suite of financial management tools. These are designed to assist Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) in meticulously maintaining general ledger accounting data, streamlining financial workflows, gaining instant insights into financial and operational metrics, optimizing consolidation, accelerating month-end closes, bolstering internal controls and audit readiness, and ensuring uniformity throughout their financial activities. Workday also provides cloud-based spend management solutions. These facilitate smoother supplier engagement and contract administration, optimize the handling of indirect expenditures, and enable the effective execution of sourcing initiatives, including requests for proposals (RFPs).…

Earnings scorecard

Reported versus consensus
Reported EPS $2.66 Consensus $3
EPS surprise +6.0% Reported versus consensus
Reported revenue $2.54B Consensus $2.52B
Revenue surprise +1.0% Reported versus consensus

Earnings History

Estimate Beat Miss Match
WDAY EPS earnings history estimate and actual scatter chart 8 reported fiscal quarters and 4 future estimate-only quarters. Q3 '24 estimate $1.40 Q3 '24 actual $1.53, beat Q4 '24 estimate $1.47 Q4 '24 actual $1.57, beat Q1 '25 estimate $1.60 Q1 '25 actual $1.74, beat Q2 '25 estimate $1.65 Q2 '25 actual $1.75, beat Q2 '26 estimate $2.11 Q2 '26 actual $2.21, beat Q3 '26 estimate $2.17 Q3 '26 actual $2.32, beat Q4 '26 estimate $2.32 Q4 '26 actual $2.47, beat Q1 '27 estimate $2.51 Q1 '27 actual $2.66, beat Q2 '27 estimate $2.61 Q3 '27 estimate $2.64 Q4 '27 estimate $2.86 Q1 '28 estimate $3.01

Analyst Consensus ?

ConsensusBuy78 ratings
Bullish4355.1%
Neutral3241.0%
Bearish33.9%

1 unmapped firm rating excluded from the percentages.

Analyst 52W Price Targets

$168.01Current
$125Low
$220.75Average
$325High

Latest persisted target per named analyst; persisted current price from FN2's market snapshot as of Jul 30, 2026. Not an FN2 forecast.

Firm-level rating actions

FMP grade actions identify the grading firm, not a named analyst.

FirmRatingPrior ratingActionDate
Morgan Stanley Underweight Equal WeightDowngradeJul 21, 2026
Goldman Sachs Neutral NeutralMaintainMay 26, 2026
Wells Fargo Overweight OverweightMaintainMay 22, 2026
UBS Neutral NeutralMaintainMay 22, 2026
Piper Sandler Neutral NeutralMaintainMay 22, 2026
Needham Buy BuyMaintainMay 22, 2026
Keybanc Overweight OverweightMaintainMay 22, 2026
Jefferies Hold HoldMaintainMay 22, 2026
Show 71 more rating actions

Named analyst price targets

Upside is calculated against the persisted current price $168.01. FMP does not supply a rating on these named-analyst rows.

FirmAnalyst52W targetPrice when postedUpsideDate
Morgan StanleyAdam Wood$145$147.22 -13.7%Jul 21, 2026
MonnessAnalyst unavailable$150$118.09 -10.7%Jun 25, 2026
Summit Redstone PartnersAnalyst unavailable$275$124.02 +63.7%May 27, 2026
H.C. WainwrightAnalyst unavailable$140$124.02 -16.7%May 27, 2026
D.A. DavidsonAnalyst unavailable$135$125.48 -19.6%May 26, 2026
Goldman SachsAnalyst unavailable$151$128.14 -10.1%May 26, 2026
UBSAnalyst unavailable$140$128.46 -16.7%May 22, 2026
NeedhamAnalyst unavailable$180$121.85 +7.1%May 22, 2026
Piper SandlerBilly Fitzsimmons$145$121.85 -13.7%May 22, 2026
Wells FargoMichael Turrin$185$121.85 +10.1%May 22, 2026
See 138 more

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Market reaction

event-close to next-session close
Stock move +5.2% Event window
SPY move +0.4% Same window
Abnormal move +4.8% Stock minus SPY
Volume 2.3× Versus trailing sessions
Subsequent drift -10.2% Up to 20 sessions
WDAYSPY benchmark

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Transcript intelligence

What changed

Revenue of $2.54B exceeded the $2.52B consensus by ~1.0%, and EPS of $2.66 beat the $2.51 estimate by ~6.0%. Subscription revenue rose 14% YoY to $2.354B, down from 16% growth in Q4 FY26. Non-GAAP operating margin expanded to 31.8%, and FY27 margin guidance was raised. AI agent ARR approached $500M with over 200% YoY new ACV growth, up from $400M ARR last quarter. Sana and Paradox were fully integrated, creating a unified AI front door. The stock rose 5.2% on the print but subsequently drifted 10.2% lower.

Guidance delta

FY27 subscription revenue growth outlook maintained at 12-13%. Non-GAAP operating margin guidance for FY27 was raised. Overall guidance sentiment was maintained with an AI-first strategic emphasis.

Key takeaways

  • EPS of $2.66 beat the $2.51 consensus by ~6.0%; revenue of $2.54B beat by ~1.0%.
  • Subscription revenue grew 14% YoY to $2.354B, decelerating from 16% in Q4 FY26.
  • AI agent portfolio drove over 200% YoY new ACV growth, with ARR approaching $500M, up from $400M last quarter.
  • Non-GAAP operating margin expanded to 31.8%, and FY27 margin guidance was raised.
  • Sana and Paradox fully integrated in Q1, creating a unified AI front door for Workday.
  • Deployment Agent cuts implementation time by 30-50%, improving mid-market competitiveness.

Management priorities

  • Host DevCon in Las Vegas in June with new AI platform announcements.
  • Make Sana for Workday and self-service agent default for all customers by end of May.
  • Launch additional AI agents and expand Extend Pro capabilities.
  • Continue building AI APIs and headless transaction monetization.
  • Grow the Vietnam operation and add more EU data-residency sites.

Related earnings events

Technology

Sources

  1. Earnings call transcript and parsed analysis · 2026-05-22T01:22:03.966805+00:00
  2. FN2 earnings calendar · 2026-07-26T00:37:12.209961+00:00
  3. Polygon adjusted daily market bars · 2026-07-30T05:41:14.601495+00:00
  4. Financial Modeling Prep analyst price-target consensus and quote snapshot · 2026-07-30T05:41:14.598638+00:00

Methodology

Reported and consensus figures come from FN2's earnings event records. Market reaction and volume are calculated from daily adjusted bars around the event; abnormal move subtracts the SPY move over the same window.

Analyst target low, average, and high values are derived at request time from each named analyst's latest persisted FMP target. The current-price marker comes from FN2's persisted market snapshot. They are sell-side estimates, not an FN2 valuation or recommendation.

Transcript intelligence is a structured synthesis of the current and prior earnings-call analyses. Missing values stay missing and are never estimated.

By FN2 Research · Updated . For educational purposes only; not investment advice.