Forensic Analysis · Software & SaaS · as of Nov 9, 2026
Workday, Inc. (WDAY)
A forensic read on Workday, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
2
Forensic signals
8.2%
ROE
13.1%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Workday, Inc. earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.7, placing it in the Grey zone. 2 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
4.7%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 4.7% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2024–FY2026 from 1.8%. After-tax operating profit was $165M in FY2024 and $495M in FY2026, with operating income at 2.5% of revenue in FY2024, 4.9% in FY2025 and 7.5% in FY2026. The capital base behind it grew +12% across FY2024–FY2026, from $9.4B to $10.5B, and the return did not fall doing it, so the dollars added over that window earned at least the 1.8% the older base was already earning. $5.2B of the $10.5B base at FY2026 is short-term investments (49.4%) — securities held beside cash, which the base keeps because only cash is subtracted from it; they earn the balance sheet's yield, which is not in the operating profit above, so this rate understates what the operating capital earns. FY2026's operating profit carried a $303M restructuring charge and a $117M asset write-down that alone took about 2.7 points off that year's return, so the latest return is depressed by that charge. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
104% of FCF
FY2026
Shareholder returns.Returned $2.9B to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2026 — 104% of free cash flow. That is $118M (4%) more than free cash flow covered. The balance sheet covered it: cash and short-term investments fell $2.6B and total debt rose $3M over FY2026. That ratio has been CLIMBING past free cash flow — 22% of free cash flow two years back — not just sitting there. Counting the $1.6B of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 163%.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$9.55B
Revenue Growth YoY+13.1%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+14.7%
Net Margin7.3%
Free Cash Flow$2.78B
Return on Equity8.2%
Debt / Equity0.38x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Workday, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?