Workday Announces Fiscal 2021 First Quarter Financial Results

Workday, a leader in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, today announced results for the fiscal 2021 first quarter ended April 30, 2020.

First Quarter Fiscal 2021 Results

• Total revenues were $1.02 billion, an increase of 23.4% from the first quarter of fiscal 2020. Subscription revenue was $882.0 million, an increase of 25.8% from the same period last year.
• Operating loss was $144.5 million, or negative 14.2% of revenues, compared to an operating loss of $123.4 million, or negative 15.0% of revenues, in the same period last year. Non-GAAP operating income for the first quarter was $130.5 million, or 12.8% of revenues, compared to a non-GAAP operating income of $107.7 million, or 13.1% of revenues, in the same period last year.1
• Net loss per basic and diluted share was $0.68, compared to a net loss per basic and diluted share of $0.52 in the first quarter of fiscal 2020. Non-GAAP net income per diluted share was $0.44, compared to a non-GAAP net income per diluted share of $0.43 in the same period last year.2
• Operating cash flows were $263.7 million compared to $209.2 million in the prior year.
• Cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $2.60 billion as of April 30, 2020.

Comments on the News

“The cloud is playing a critical role in today’s climate, with organisations leaning on Workday to pivot – whether it’s helping employees learn virtually, closing books remotely, or scenario planning to determine what path to take. In many of these situations, our customers are running essential businesses, which we are incredibly grateful for,” said Aneel Bhusri, co-founder and CEO, Workday. “Amidst the current environment, we are pleased with our strong Q1 results, which include several new Fortune 500 customers as well as many virtual go-lives. Our employees never cease to amaze me and despite this entirely new way of remote working, they delivered our most recent release with more than 400 new features and moved Workday Extend to general availability.”

“Despite a challenging environment, we reported solid first-quarter results, which we believe are a direct reflection of the mission-critical nature of our solutions,” said Robynne Sisco, co-president and chief financial officer, Workday. “While we believe we remain well-positioned for the long term, we are reducing our fiscal 2021 subscription revenue guidance to account for the near-term impact from COVID-19. We now expect fiscal 2021 subscription revenue in a range of $3.67 billion to $3.69 billion. We expect second-quarter subscription revenue of $913.0 million to $915.0 million. We are raising our fiscal 2021 non-GAAP operating margin guidance to 16.0%. We remain confident in the fundamental strength of our business model, and we plan to operate with agility while continuing to drive innovation to support sustainable, long-term growth.”

Recent Highlights

• Workday is continuing to prioritise the safety and wellbeing of its community in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its efforts include temporarily closing the majority of its global offices, with most employees working remotely; a one-time cash bonus equivalent to two-weeks’ pay – totaling $79 million in additional expense for the company – for the majority of employees; and benefits like expanded back-up care and extended sick leave for those who contract COVID-19. 
• Workday had more than 90 virtual customer go-lives – consisting of organisations using Workday as the core system of record for finance and human resources – in the months of March and April, including two organisations with more than 85,000 employees.
• Workday announced that Workday Rising and Workday Rising Europe will move to one global, digital experience on Oct. 7-8, 2020. In addition, Workday hosted Adaptive Live virtually on May 20, with more than 2,500 online attendees.
• Workday’s Co-Founder and CEO Aneel Bhusri volunteered to forgo his equity awards grant during the spring fiscal 2021 annual compensation cycle. His annual base salary remains at the statutory minimum of $65,000 a year.
• Workday made donations to causes on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis, including donating a combined total of $1.5 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the United Nations Foundation. 
• Workday appointed Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work Institute, to its board of directors. 
• As part of its long-term capital structure strategy, Workday announced the closing of a $750 million term loan and a $750 million revolving credit facility. 
• The product portfolio of Adaptive Insights is now Workday Adaptive Planning, reflecting the full integration of the two brands and demonstrating Workday’s ongoing commitment to planning.
• Workday Extend, formerly known as Workday Cloud Platform, is now generally available for customers and partners to build apps that extend existing Workday-delivered applications to meet their unique business needs. Workday Cloud Platform now refers to the broader portfolio of tools and solutions that support extensibility across Workday, including Workday Extend and Workday Integration Cloud.
• Workday delivered Workday 2020 Release 1, which includes key additions in talent optimisation, planning, learning, and analytics that help enable customers to better respond to a changing business landscape and initiate a return to the workplace. Key features released include enhanced workforce planning with Workday Adaptive Planning; availability of Workday Assistant, an intuitive chatbot to guide employees; new machine learning-based skills capabilities in Workday Human Capital Management to verify current employee skills and support re-skilling efforts; and new data visualisation and benchmarking features with Workday Prism.

Earnings Call Details

Workday plans to host a conference call today to review its fiscal 2021 first quarter financial results and to discuss its financial outlook. The call is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. PT/4:30 p.m. ET and can be accessed via webcast. The webcast will be available live, and a replay will be available following completion of the live broadcast for approximately 90 days.

Workday uses the Workday Blog as a means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.

1. Non-GAAP operating income excludes share-based compensation expenses, employer payroll tax-related items on employee stock transactions, and amortisation expense for acquisition-related intangible assets. See the section titled “About Non-GAAP Financial Measures” in the accompanying financial tables for further details.
2. Non-GAAP net income per share excludes share-based compensation expenses, employer payroll tax-related items on employee stock transactions, amortisation expense for acquisition-related intangible assets, non-cash interest expense related to our convertible senior notes, and income tax effects. See the section titled “About Non-GAAP Financial Measures” in the accompanying financial tables for further details.