Workday rises after company maintains guidance for 2023, analysts praise 'strong Q2'
Sundry Photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) rose 2% on Friday, off the best levels of the session, after the back-office software provider posted second-quarter results that analysts praised as "strong" and it maintained its guidance for the rest of the fiscal year, amid worries of a slowdown in the sector.
Credit Suisse analyst Philip Winslow, who has a neutral rating and $215 price target on Workday (WDAY), noted that management calling out "healthy demand" across all product areas and geographies, along with the closing of two large deals that had been pushed from the first quarter bodes well for the near-term future.
"We are impressed by Workday's results and go-to-market momentum this quarter - with new logo wins and improved upsell, the combination of which better positions the company to achieve durable subscription revenue growth over the near- and medium-term," Winslow wrote in a note to clients.
During the second quarter, Workday (WDAY) said it earned an adjusted $0.83 per share on $1.54B in sales, up 21.9% year-over-year, topping estimates. The company also maintained its fiscal 2023 revenue forecast to be between $5.537B and $5.557B, with third-quarter subscription revenue between $1.418B and $1.42B, up 21% year-over-year. 
Pleasanton, California-based Workday (WDAY) also raised its fiscal 2023 non-GAAP operating margin guidance to 19.0%.
Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss, who has an overweight rating on Workday (WDAY), said the results were "much better than feared" and should boost investor confidence. 
"With enterprise SaaS peers calling out macro impacts on deal cycles, a long-standing investor narrative that back-office applications get de-prioritized in times of macro weakness, and Workday themselves seeing slipped deals in [first-quarter], the company entered the [second-quarter] print facing a wall of worry â and nicely hurdled over that wall," Weiss wrote in an investor note. 
Mizuho analyst Siti Panigrahi, who has a buy rating and a $220 price target on Workday (WDAY), noted that the second-quarter results were "solid," especially in the light of some disappointing results from the competition.
Panigrahi pointed out that management "prudently" maintained their guidance, despite noting they have not yet seen any signs of a slowdown, along with maintaining its fiscal 2026 guidance of $10B in revenue and 25% operating margin. 
"We believe Workday remains in a strong position to become the preeminent vendor in the back-office suite longer term," Panigrahi wrote in a note, adding that the September 13 Analyst Day could be a "potential catalyst" for the stock.
Hedge fund Coatue Management started a new position in Workday (WDAY) during the second quarter, along with making several other changes to its portfolio.