WDAY vs NOW Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
Workday and ServiceNow are both enterprise SaaS leaders but in different workflow categories. Workday owns HCM and ERP for workforce and financial management; ServiceNow owns IT workflow automation and is rapidly expanding into all enterprise process categories. ServiceNow has exhibited faster revenue growth and more aggressive AI monetization; Workday has deeper integration within the HCM and finance function but is growing more slowly.
WDAY vs NOW is a choice between the enterprise HCM/Finance cloud leader (Workday) and the enterprise workflow automation platform (ServiceNow) — ServiceNow's platform breadth expansion and AI workflow monetization have driven faster growth, while Workday's HCM and finance lock-in provide more predictable recurring revenue from a dominant system-of-record position.
WDAY holds the edge across 5 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. WDAY leads on both 1-year return (-16.97%) and forward P/E quality (15.20x vs 28.91x for NOW), a relatively favorable combination of momentum and valuation. On fundamentals, NOW is growing revenue faster (24.00%), while WDAY maintains the higher operating margin (11.82%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for WDAY (+3.10%) than for NOW (-1.71%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- prefer the dominant cloud HCM and ERP system-of-record with deep Fortune 500 customer lock-in
- value unified workforce and financial management data in a single platform that is very difficult to replace
- want AI adoption as a margin enhancement rather than a standalone new product revenue line within existing enterprise customers
- are comfortable with slower revenue growth rates as Workday approaches maturity in large enterprise HCM penetration
- prefer the enterprise workflow automation platform with the most aggressive AI commercial deployment in enterprise SaaS
- value Now Assist GenAI as the leading indicator of AI monetization in SaaS — paid seats and contract expansions are already happening
- want a faster-growing enterprise software platform with consistent 20%+ subscription revenue growth and expanding margins
- are comfortable with a premium valuation that requires sustained execution on both growth and margin expansion targets
| Metric | WDAY | NOW |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 41.3 | 40.4 |
| AI ranki | #1059 | #1148 |
| Latest closei | $193.87 | $135.47 |
| 1M returni | -2.29% | +6.50% |
| 6M returni | +45.35% | +19.60% |
| 1Y returni | -16.97% | -28.53% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | WDAY | NOW |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $8.3K (-17.0%) started 2025-09-18 | $7.15K (-28.5%) started 2025-09-18 |
| 5Y ago | $7.26K (-27.4%) started 2021-09-20 | $10.44K (+4.4%) started 2021-09-20 |
| 10Y ago | $21.87K (+118.7%) started 2016-09-19 | $17.83K (+78.3%) started 2016-09-19 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | WDAY | NOW |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $48.41B | $149.61B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 40.83 | 89.88 |
| Forward P/Ei | 15.20 | 28.91 |
| Price/Salesi | N/A | 18.61 |
| EV/Revenuei | 4.80 | 10.41 |
| Analyst targeti | $207.10 | $142.23 |
| Target upsidei | +3.10% | -1.71% |
| Metric | WDAY | NOW |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 12.80% | 24.00% |
| Earnings growthi | 206.00% | -21.90% |
| EPS growthi | +206.00% | -21.90% |
| FCF margini | +30.00% | +34.95% |
| Operating margini | 11.82% | 4.06% |
| Profit margini | 12.32% | 11.34% |
| ROIC proxyi | 16.01% | 14.24% |
| Return on equityi | 16.01% | 14.24% |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | N/A |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Dividend growth streaki | N/A | N/A |
| Betai | 1.05 | 0.93 |
| Debt/equityi | 58.39 | 67.54 |
| Current ratioi | 0.91 | 0.70 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.81 | 0.56 |
Over the past year, WDAY and NOW have moved strongly in the same direction (correlation of 0.75), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | WDAY | NOW |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | -16.97% | -28.53% |
| CAGRi | -16.98% | -28.55% | |
| Volatilityi | 54.06% | 57.21% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.16 | -0.38 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.25 | -0.53 | |
| Max drawdowni | 54.58% | 56.82% | |
| Current drawdowni | 21.73% | 29.53% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 29.63% | 32.37% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 34.43% | 36.32% | |
| Max daily dropi | 9.42% | 17.75% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 15.05% | 18.63% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -27.44% | +4.41% |
| CAGRi | -6.22% | +0.87% | |
| Volatilityi | 41.64% | 45.43% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.06 | 0.15 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.08 | 0.21 | |
| Max drawdowni | 63.38% | 64.54% | |
| Current drawdowni | 36.89% | 42.13% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 28.98% | 24.21% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 32.92% | 29.73% | |
| Max daily dropi | 15.33% | 17.75% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 20.18% | 18.63% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +118.69% | +78.27% |
| CAGRi | +8.14% | +5.95% | |
| Volatilityi | 40.08% | 282.63% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.28 | 0.60 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.41 | 2.52 | |
| Max drawdowni | 63.38% | 79.88% | |
| Current drawdowni | 36.89% | 42.13% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 19.98% | 35.14% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 25.40% | 43.03% | |
| Max daily dropi | 15.33% | 79.81% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 20.58% | 79.56% |
| Category | WDAY | NOW |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Workday, Inc. | ServiceNow, Inc. |
| Sector | Technology | Technology |
| Industry | Software - Application | Software - Application |
| Core business | Workday provides cloud-based human capital management (HCM) and financial management applications for large enterprises. Its unified platform for HR (recruiting, payroll, benefits, workforce planning) and finance (ERP, accounting, planning) serves Fortune 500 companies as a single system of record for workforce and financial data. Workday's AI assistant and People Intelligence capabilities are being embedded across its HCM and finance platform to automate routine HR and financial processes. | ServiceNow provides a cloud-based workflow automation platform that originated in IT Service Management (ITSM) and has expanded into HR, customer service, and enterprise-wide process automation. Its Now Platform with AI copilots (Now Assist) and GenAI-powered workflows is one of the most aggressive enterprise AI deployments in SaaS. ServiceNow serves large enterprises with workflows that automate approval processes, incident routing, employee onboarding, and customer service case resolution — replacing manual processes with automated AI-powered decisions. |
| Investor focus | Investors track subscription revenue growth, remaining performance obligations (RPO) as a leading indicator of booked ARR, AI product adoption within existing customers, and operating margin expansion toward the 25%+ target as Workday scales. | Investors focus on subscription revenue growth (consistently above 20%), Now Assist AI product adoption across the platform, expansion from ITSM into adjacent workflow domains, and operating margin improvement as the company scales toward 30%+. |
- Dominant position in cloud HCM for large enterprises with very high switching costs from ERP-level integrations
- Unified HCM + Finance system of record creates deep, durable customer lock-in versus best-of-breed alternatives
- AI People Intelligence and Workday Assistant embed AI across all modules without requiring separate AI infrastructure investments
- Platform of platforms architecture with Now Platform embedded in enterprise workflows across IT, HR, and customer service makes it extraordinarily sticky
- Now Assist GenAI is among the most commercially mature enterprise AI deployments, with paying customers and measurable productivity metrics
- Consistent 20%+ subscription revenue growth and expanding margins demonstrate disciplined execution across multiple enterprise workflow categories
- Revenue growth has decelerated as Workday approaches its total addressable market ceiling in large enterprise HCM
- SAP's SuccessFactors and Oracle HCM are competing with native AI capabilities in legacy ERP environments
- Hiring freeze environments reduce Workday's value proposition as customers need fewer new HCM features when headcount is frozen
- Premium valuation requires sustained 20%+ growth with margin expansion — any execution miss creates outsized stock reactions
- Expanding into new workflow domains (healthcare, finance operations) creates competition with specialized software in each vertical
- Microsoft 365 Copilot offers competing workflow automation capabilities built into Microsoft's existing enterprise footprint
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