Workday surges as Monness, Crespi, Hardt calls Q1 'healthy'
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Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) shares rose nearly 10% in pre-market trading on Friday as investment firm Monness, Crespi, Hardt described the cloud software maker's first-quarter results and guidance as "healthy."
"Workday continues to expand the reach of its cloud platform, pursue a large market opportunity, and execute well," analyst Brian White, who has a neutral rating on Workday, wrote in an investor note.
White raised his earnings estimates for the second quarter to $1.26 per share, but kept his revenue estimates the same for the quarter and "modestly" trimmed his full-year sales forecast.
Workday (WDAY) reported adjusted earnings of $1.31 per share for the first-quarter, generating $1.68B in revenue for the period, including $1.53B from subscriptions.
The company also raised its subscription revenue forecast for the full-year to be between $6.55B and $6.575B. Wall Street expects full-year revenues to be $7.195B.
In addition, White noted that the tone of the earnings call was "constructive" as Workday continues to execute well "in a challenging economic environment and building out a healthy pipeline."
"Furthermore, Workday touched on the opportunity to further leverage AI on its platform and we expect new generative AI innovations in the future," White explained.
Workday (WDAY) also said it would hire less employees in fiscal 2024 compared to fiscal 2023, while announcing former VMware CFO Zane Rowe as its new finance chief. 
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