Workday's delivered fourth-quarter sales that were slightly below expectations, but handily topped its earnings estimates. Separately, Workday said it will buy HiredScore, which specializes in talent orchestration.
The company reported fourth-quarter earnings of $4.42 a share, which includes a $1.1 billion tax benefit. Non-GAAP earnings for the fourth quarter were $1.57 a share on revenue of $1.9 billion, up 17% from a year ago.
Wall Street was looking for fourth quarter earnings of $1.47 a share on revenue of $1.92 billion.
For fiscal 2024, Workday reported revenue of $7.3 billion, up 17% from a year ago. Earnings were $5.21 a share.
Workday's subscription revenue backlog was $20.9 billion in the fourth quarter, up 27% from a year ago. Carl Eschenbach, CEO of Workday, said the company saw "continued momentum with full platform customer wins and expansions within our base." Workday's Eschenbach becomes sole CEO, Bhusri executive chair
As for the outlook, Workday CFO Zane Rowe said the company is reiterating its fiscal 2025 subscription revenue guidance of $7.725 billion to $7.775 billion. Non-GAAP operating margins will be about 24.5% as the company balances investment in the business with profits.
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Rowe said the fourth quarter was solid. On a conference call with analysts, Eschenbach said the company is looking for growth outside of North America.
He said:
"International represents over half of our addressable opportunity yet is 1/4 of our revenues. We're working to change that, and we're seeing early signs of progress. In EMEA, our leadership additions continue to drive improved and more consistent results."
Japan and Australia are also growing markets.
Regarding HiredScore, Workday said it will combine HiredScore's Talent Orchestration platform with its Talent Management and Skills Cloud. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in Workday's first fiscal quarter, weren't disclosed.
Eschenbach said the following about the HiredScore deal:
"When you think about the addition of HiredScore, that we just acquired, along with our recruiting platform, our Talent Optimization platform and our candidate engagement platform, it gives us the ability to deliver a full suite for talent acquisition around how we identify talent, how we engage with them, how we source or recruit them and then how we retain them for internal mobility. So I am really confident in our ability to deliver a strong ROI to the recruiting and talent organizations, with us having what I think now is one of the best full platform suites for talent acquisition going forward."
