As Q4 earnings season comes to a close, it’s time to take stock of this quarters’ best and worst performers amongst the finance and hr software stocks, including Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) and its peers.
Organizations are constantly looking to improve organizational efficiencies, whether it is financial planning, tax management or payroll. Finance and HR software benefit from the SaaS-ification of businesses, large and small, who much prefer the flexibility of cloud-based, web-browser delivered software paid for on a subscription basis than the hassle and expense of purchasing and managing on-premise enterprise software.
The 17 finance and HR software stocks we track reported a solid Q4; on average, revenues beat analyst consensus estimates by 5.66%, while on average next quarter revenue guidance was 2.56% above consensus. There has been a stampede out of high valuation technology stocks, but finance and HR software stocks held their ground better than others, with the share price up 4.2% since earnings, on average.
Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY)
Founded by industry veterans Aneel Bushri and Dave Duffield after their former company PeopleSoft was acquired by Oracle in a hostile takeover, Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) provides cloud-based software for organizations to manage and plan finance and human resources.
Workday reported revenues of $1.37 billion, up 21.6% year on year, in line with analyst expectations. It was a mixed quarter for the company, with a decent beat of top-line analysts' estimates but a decline in gross margin compared to the previous quarter.
"We closed out the year with another strong quarter that saw continued acceleration of our business, including a growing global workforce and a relentless focus on employees, customers, and innovation," said Aneel Bhusri, co-founder, co-CEO, and chairman, Workday.
The stock is down 0.21% since the results and currently trades at $229.
Read our full report on Workday here, it's free.
Best Q4: Marqeta (NASDAQ:MQ)
Founded by CEO Jason Gardner in 2009, Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ) is an innovative card issuer that provides companies with the ability to issue and process virtual, physical, and tokenized credit and debit cards.
Marqeta reported revenues of $155.4 million, up 76.2% year on year, beating analyst expectations by 12.7%. It was an incredible quarter for the company, with a significant improvement in gross margin and an impressive beat of analyst estimates.
The stock is up 2.7% since the results and currently trades at $11.
Is now the time to buy Marqeta? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it's free.
Weakest Q4: Coupa (NASDAQ:COUP)
Founded in 2006 by former Oracle executives, Coupa Software (COUP) is a software as a service platform that helps enterprises manage their spending across procurement, billing and business expenses and get a better visibility into how the money is spent.
Coupa reported revenues of $193.2 million, up 18.1% year on year, beating analyst expectations by 3.82%. It was a weak quarter for the company, with the guidance for both the next quarter and the full year missing analyst estimates.
Coupa had the weakest full year guidance update in the group. The stock is up 15.1% since the results and currently trades at $103.50.
Read our full analysis of Coupa's results here.
Bill.com (NYSE:BILL)
Started by René Lacerte in 2006 after selling his previous payroll and accounting software company PayCycle to Intuit, Bill.com (NYSE:BILL) is a software as a service platform that aims to make payments and billing processes easier for small and medium-sized businesses.
Bill.com reported revenues of $156.4 million, up 189% year on year, beating analyst expectations by 19.3%. It was a stunning quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analyst estimates and revenue guidance for the next quarter above expectations.
Bill.com achieved the fastest revenue growth among the peers. The company added 8,200 customers to a total of 135,000. The stock is up 25.9% since the results and currently trades at $214.04.
Read our full, actionable report on Bill.com here, it's free.
Asure Software (NASDAQ:ASUR)
Created from the merger of two small workforce management companies in 2007, Asure (NASDAQ:ASUR) provides cloud based payroll and HR software for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Asure Software reported revenues of $21.1 million, up 28.4% year on year, beating analyst expectations by 2%. It was a solid quarter for the company, with a significant improvement in gross margin and guidance for the next year in line with analysts' expectations.
The stock is up 0.14% since the results and currently trades at $6.75.
Read our full, actionable report on Asure Software here, it's free.
The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned