Carl Eschenbach, CEO of Workday, speaks on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” outside the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23, 2025.
Gerry Miller | CNBC
Workday, a maker of human resources and finance software, reported better-than-expected quarterly results on Tuesday. The shares popped more than 10% in extended trading.
Here’s how the company did in comparison with LSEG consensus:
Earnings per share: $1.92 adjusted vs. $1.78 expected
Revenue: $2.21 billion vs. $2.18 billion expected
Revenue increased 15% year over year in the quarter that ended on Jan. 31, according to a statement. Net income fell to $94 million, or 35 cents per share, from $1.19 billion, or $4.52 per share, in the same quarter a year earlier.
“The prior year period benefited from a $1.1 billion release of the valuation allowance related to U.S. federal and state deferred tax assets,” Workday said.
The company is seeing greater demand for artificial intelligence tools.
“In fact, AI is front and center in every conversation I have with customers, prospects and partners. They want to move beyond incremental productivity gains,” CEO Carl Eschenbach said on a conference call with analysts. “They’re also looking for ROI that helps them drive growth back into their business,” Eschenbach added.
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Around 30% of Workday’s expansions with existing clients drew on at least one AI product, in line with the previous quarter, Eschenbach said. Additional AI products will become available over the next year, he said.
The rise of the Department of Government Efficiency creates opportunity for Workday, which has focused more on federal sales over the past year and a half, Eschenbach said.
“The systems they have, specifically ERP, HCM, or financial systems, are very antiquated,” he said. “In fact, the majority of them are still on premises, which means they’re inefficient. And as we think about DOGE and what that could potentially do going forward, if you want to drive efficiency in the government, you have to upgrade your systems,” the CEO added.
After becoming Workday’s sole CEO last year, he said the company has hired Google Cloud executive Gerrit Kazmaier to be president of products and technology. Sayan Chakraborty, who currently holds that title, will retire after being at Workday for about a decade.
During the quarter, Workday announced the hiring of former UiPath CEO Rob Enslin as its new president and chief commercial officer. Workday also said it would use AI to summarize employee feedback in its Peakon product.
The company called for a 28% adjusted operating margin on $2.05 billion in subscription revenue for the fiscal first quarter. Analysts polled by StreetAccount had expected an adjusted margin of 26.7% and $2.06 billion in revenue.
For fiscal 2026, Workday now sees an adjusted margin of 28%, with $8.8 billion in subscription revenue, implying 14% growth. That is slightly higher than the forecast management gave in November.
As of Tuesday’s close, Workday shares were flat year over year, while the S&P 500 index was up 1%.
Shares of grocery delivery service Instacart dropped about 7% in extended trading on Wednesday, following a report that said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has begun an investigation into the company’s pricing practices.
The FTC sent a civil investigative demand to Instacart, Reuters reported, citing unnamed people.
A study released last week showed that prices for the same products in the same supermarkets that work with Instacart can vary by around 7%, which can result in over $1,000 in extra annual costs for customers. Instacart responded by saying that retailers determine prices listed in the app.
In 2022, Instacart spent $59 million to acquire Eversight, a company specializing in artificial intelligence-driven pricing and promotions for retailers and consumer packaged goods. Instacart sought to “create compelling savings opportunities for customers in real-time” with Eversight, according to a regulatory filing.
The FTC and Instacart did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Jim Cramer implores Amazon not to engage in “sham-like” circular AI deals that remind him of the kind of speculation that fueled the 1990s dotcom bubble that burst more than two decades ago. According to multiple reports on Wednesday, Amazon is in talks about a potential $10 billion investment in OpenAI in exchange for the ChatGPT creator agreeing to use the cloud giant’s custom AI chips. “They really need Trainium chips sold so badly that they give somebody $10 billion to buy them,” Jim said during the Club’s Morning Meeting on Wednesday . “I would love to see them not play this game.” “I really respect Amazon, and this shocks me that they’re willing to put up with this,” Jim said on “Squawk on the Street” earlier Wednesday. “You can’t do these deals. These deals are not real.” Over the past several years, many investors have been sounding the alarm over the growing levels of AI-related spending from megacap hyperscalers to compete in the so-called AI arms race. The push for AI requires the buildout of data centers and high-performance chips to run the systems. Jim said the current spate of interconnected investment activity is similar to deals in the lead-up to the year 2000. “The market is not going to let this happen,” Jim predicted, calling the stock market a “cruel task master,” in a stark warning about excess that drove the tech-heavy Nasdaq to a then-record high in March 2000 and the 78% crash over 2½ years that followed. OpenAI has been on a deal spree in 2025, securing massive amounts of computing power from firms including Nvidia , Advanced Micro Devices , Oracle , and Amazon’s cloud unit. That has amounted to the AI startup making $1.4 trillion in infrastructure commitments in recent months. Jim recently referred to OpenAI’s deal activity as “2000 in a nutshell,” as it continues to make aggressive, leveraged bets, raising concerns about an AI bubble. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long AMZN, NVDA. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
Rohit Prasad, Senior VP & Head Scientist for Alexa, Amazon, on Centre Stage during day one of Web Summit 2022 at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal.
Ben McShane | Sportsfile | Getty Images
Rohit Prasad, a top Amazon executive overseeing its artificial general intelligence unit, is leaving the company at the end of this year, the company confirmed Wednesday.
As part of the move, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company is reorganizing the AGI unit under a more expansive division that will also include its silicon development and quantum computing teams. The new division will be led by Peter DeSantis, a 27-year veteran of Amazon who currently serves as a senior vice president in its cloud unit.
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