Return on Capital (ROC)
Return on capital (ROC) is after tax rate of return on net business assets. ROIC is unaffected by changes in interest rates or company debt and equity structure. It measures business productivity performance.
Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
Workday Inc., ROIC calculation, comparison to benchmarks
| Jan 31, 2025 | Jan 31, 2024 | Jan 31, 2023 | Jan 31, 2022 | Jan 31, 2021 | Jan 31, 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Selected Financial Data (US$ in millions) | |||||||
| Net operating profit after taxes (NOPAT)1 | 860) | 673) | 102) | 506) | 84) | (113) | |
| Invested capital2 | 9,420) | 8,631) | 8,178) | 7,706) | 6,061) | 5,129) | |
| Performance Ratio | |||||||
| ROIC3 | 9.13% | 7.80% | 1.25% | 6.56% | 1.38% | -2.21% | |
| Benchmarks | |||||||
| ROIC, Competitors4 | |||||||
| Accenture PLC | — | 20.33% | 21.14% | 23.93% | 25.83% | 26.30% | |
| Adobe Inc. | — | 21.19% | 21.68% | 26.93% | 29.44% | 21.67% | |
| Cadence Design Systems Inc. | — | 14.27% | 24.69% | 23.98% | 24.26% | 25.05% | |
| CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. | 6.78% | 11.73% | 15.20% | 12.03% | 9.74% | 20.78% | |
| International Business Machines Corp. | — | 4.37% | 7.63% | -0.68% | 3.78% | 3.44% | |
| Intuit Inc. | — | 10.69% | 8.53% | 9.30% | 17.64% | 20.65% | |
| Microsoft Corp. | — | 25.70% | 28.71% | 36.59% | 45.56% | 43.43% | |
| Oracle Corp. | — | 11.71% | 10.34% | 9.70% | 17.55% | 11.53% | |
| Palantir Technologies Inc. | — | 13.53% | 16.73% | -7.21% | -14.60% | -54.59% | |
| Palo Alto Networks Inc. | — | 23.08% | 28.59% | 19.73% | 11.48% | 9.91% | |
| Salesforce Inc. | 8.38% | 5.72% | 3.01% | 5.42% | 8.25% | 5.13% | |
| ServiceNow Inc. | — | 23.07% | 22.31% | 17.69% | 18.88% | 20.49% | |
| Synopsys Inc. | — | 10.31% | 11.03% | 17.54% | 11.52% | 11.63% | |
Based on: 10-K (reporting date: 2025-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2024-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2023-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2022-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2021-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2020-01-31).
1 NOPAT. See details »
2 Invested capital. See details »
3 2025 Calculation
ROIC = 100 × NOPAT ÷ Invested capital
= 100 × 860 ÷ 9,420 = 9.13%
4 Click competitor name to see calculations.
| Performance ratio | Description | The company |
|---|---|---|
| ROIC | A measure of the periodic, after tax, cash-on-cash yield earned in the business. | Workday Inc. ROIC improved from 2023 to 2024 and from 2024 to 2025. |
Decomposition of ROIC
Workday Inc., decomposition of ROIC
Based on: 10-K (reporting date: 2025-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2024-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2023-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2022-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2021-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2020-01-31).
1 Operating profit margin (OPM). See calculations »
2 Turnover of capital (TO). See calculations »
3 Effective cash tax rate (CTR). See calculations »
The primary reason for the increase in return on invested capital (ROIC) over 2025 year is the increase in profitability measured by operating profit margin (OPM) ratio.
Operating Profit Margin (OPM)
Workday Inc., OPM calculation, comparison to benchmarks
| Jan 31, 2025 | Jan 31, 2024 | Jan 31, 2023 | Jan 31, 2022 | Jan 31, 2021 | Jan 31, 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Selected Financial Data (US$ in millions) | |||||||
| Net operating profit after taxes (NOPAT)1 | 860) | 673) | 102) | 506) | 84) | (113) | |
| Add: Cash operating taxes2 | 34) | (3) | 118) | (4) | 20) | 13) | |
| Net operating profit before taxes (NOPBT) | 894) | 670) | 219) | 502) | 104) | (101) | |
| Revenues | 8,446) | 7,259) | 6,216) | 5,139) | 4,318) | 3,627) | |
| Add: Increase (decrease) in unearned revenue | 420) | 493) | 451) | 546) | 328) | 360) | |
| Adjusted revenues | 8,866) | 7,752) | 6,667) | 5,685) | 4,646) | 3,987) | |
| Profitability Ratio | |||||||
| OPM3 | 10.08% | 8.65% | 3.29% | 8.82% | 2.23% | -2.53% | |
| Benchmarks | |||||||
| OPM, Competitors4 | |||||||
| Accenture PLC | — | 15.15% | 14.56% | 15.48% | 16.65% | 16.59% | |
| Adobe Inc. | — | 32.23% | 35.97% | 36.56% | 40.89% | 34.42% | |
| Cadence Design Systems Inc. | — | 31.87% | 31.47% | 32.28% | 28.51% | 27.83% | |
| CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. | 12.15% | 18.67% | 20.92% | 23.25% | 20.74% | 18.60% | |
| International Business Machines Corp. | — | 11.46% | 17.57% | 2.98% | 10.91% | 9.64% | |
| Intuit Inc. | — | 24.30% | 23.08% | 21.00% | 28.02% | 29.42% | |
| Microsoft Corp. | — | 45.67% | 43.20% | 43.28% | 43.49% | 38.29% | |
| Oracle Corp. | — | 30.01% | 26.91% | 24.11% | 40.03% | 34.29% | |
| Palantir Technologies Inc. | — | 11.18% | 9.03% | -8.42% | -23.57% | -109.97% | |
| Palo Alto Networks Inc. | — | 28.26% | 29.22% | 23.90% | 16.95% | 17.41% | |
| Salesforce Inc. | 24.54% | 17.72% | 10.29% | 16.42% | 20.31% | 15.73% | |
| ServiceNow Inc. | — | 20.13% | 18.76% | 14.87% | 17.20% | 17.77% | |
| Synopsys Inc. | — | 24.97% | 20.63% | 27.91% | 22.47% | 22.28% | |
Based on: 10-K (reporting date: 2025-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2024-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2023-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2022-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2021-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2020-01-31).
1 NOPAT. See details »
2 Cash operating taxes. See details »
3 2025 Calculation
OPM = 100 × NOPBT ÷ Adjusted revenues
= 100 × 894 ÷ 8,866 = 10.08%
4 Click competitor name to see calculations.
| Profitability ratio | Description | The company |
|---|---|---|
| OPM | The operating profit margin (OPM) is the ratio of pretax economic earnings, or NOPBT, to sales. | Workday Inc. OPM improved from 2023 to 2024 and from 2024 to 2025. |
Turnover of Capital (TO)
Workday Inc., TO calculation, comparison to benchmarks
| Jan 31, 2025 | Jan 31, 2024 | Jan 31, 2023 | Jan 31, 2022 | Jan 31, 2021 | Jan 31, 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Selected Financial Data (US$ in millions) | |||||||
| Revenues | 8,446) | 7,259) | 6,216) | 5,139) | 4,318) | 3,627) | |
| Add: Increase (decrease) in unearned revenue | 420) | 493) | 451) | 546) | 328) | 360) | |
| Adjusted revenues | 8,866) | 7,752) | 6,667) | 5,685) | 4,646) | 3,987) | |
| Invested capital1 | 9,420) | 8,631) | 8,178) | 7,706) | 6,061) | 5,129) | |
| Efficiency Ratio | |||||||
| TO2 | 0.94 | 0.90 | 0.82 | 0.74 | 0.77 | 0.78 | |
| Benchmarks | |||||||
| TO, Competitors3 | |||||||
| Accenture PLC | — | 1.76 | 1.94 | 2.08 | 1.95 | 1.97 | |
| Adobe Inc. | — | 0.88 | 0.80 | 0.86 | 0.80 | 0.70 | |
| Cadence Design Systems Inc. | — | 0.65 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 0.98 | 0.99 | |
| CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. | 0.61 | 0.64 | 0.75 | 0.64 | 0.48 | 1.14 | |
| International Business Machines Corp. | — | 0.57 | 0.56 | 0.58 | 0.52 | 0.58 | |
| Intuit Inc. | — | 0.65 | 0.61 | 0.52 | 0.79 | 0.89 | |
| Microsoft Corp. | — | 0.72 | 0.88 | 1.04 | 1.20 | 1.35 | |
| Oracle Corp. | — | 0.53 | 0.52 | 0.54 | 0.51 | 0.44 | |
| Palantir Technologies Inc. | — | 1.15 | 1.86 | 0.60 | 0.61 | 0.49 | |
| Palo Alto Networks Inc. | — | 0.94 | 1.01 | 0.86 | 0.74 | 0.62 | |
| Salesforce Inc. | 0.46 | 0.43 | 0.39 | 0.36 | 0.44 | 0.41 | |
| ServiceNow Inc. | — | 1.22 | 1.24 | 1.24 | 1.16 | 1.23 | |
| Synopsys Inc. | — | 0.60 | 0.71 | 0.71 | 0.63 | 0.58 | |
Based on: 10-K (reporting date: 2025-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2024-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2023-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2022-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2021-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2020-01-31).
1 Invested capital. See details »
2 2025 Calculation
TO = Adjusted revenues ÷ Invested capital
= 8,866 ÷ 9,420 = 0.94
3 Click competitor name to see calculations.
| Efficiency ratio | Description | The company |
|---|---|---|
| TO | The turnover of capital (TO) is the ratio of sales to invested capital. Capital turnover is a function of the efficiency of working capital management and of net fixed assets. | Workday Inc. TO improved from 2023 to 2024 and from 2024 to 2025. |
Effective Cash Tax Rate (CTR)
Workday Inc., CTR calculation, comparison to benchmarks
| Jan 31, 2025 | Jan 31, 2024 | Jan 31, 2023 | Jan 31, 2022 | Jan 31, 2021 | Jan 31, 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Selected Financial Data (US$ in millions) | |||||||
| Net operating profit after taxes (NOPAT)1 | 860) | 673) | 102) | 506) | 84) | (113) | |
| Add: Cash operating taxes2 | 34) | (3) | 118) | (4) | 20) | 13) | |
| Net operating profit before taxes (NOPBT) | 894) | 670) | 219) | 502) | 104) | (101) | |
| Tax Rate | |||||||
| CTR3 | 3.78% | -0.43% | 53.58% | -0.77% | 19.25% | — | |
| Benchmarks | |||||||
| CTR, Competitors4 | |||||||
| Accenture PLC | — | 23.87% | 25.34% | 25.55% | 20.47% | 19.34% | |
| Adobe Inc. | — | 25.54% | 24.54% | 14.22% | 10.28% | 9.63% | |
| Cadence Design Systems Inc. | — | 31.39% | 21.85% | 25.88% | 13.59% | 9.34% | |
| CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. | 8.16% | 1.48% | 2.46% | 18.96% | 2.38% | 1.95% | |
| International Business Machines Corp. | — | 32.49% | 22.56% | 139.75% | 33.85% | 37.95% | |
| Intuit Inc. | — | 32.36% | 39.49% | 14.74% | 20.15% | 20.99% | |
| Microsoft Corp. | — | 21.33% | 24.32% | 18.98% | 13.05% | 15.80% | |
| Oracle Corp. | — | 25.73% | 25.66% | 26.20% | 13.28% | 23.42% | |
| Palantir Technologies Inc. | — | -4.95% | 0.60% | — | — | — | |
| Palo Alto Networks Inc. | — | 13.32% | 2.83% | 3.82% | 8.83% | 7.62% | |
| Salesforce Inc. | 26.02% | 25.29% | 25.49% | 8.32% | 6.83% | 19.81% | |
| ServiceNow Inc. | — | 5.72% | 4.32% | 4.41% | 5.03% | 5.90% | |
| Synopsys Inc. | — | 30.80% | 24.60% | 11.45% | 18.39% | 10.36% | |
Based on: 10-K (reporting date: 2025-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2024-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2023-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2022-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2021-01-31), 10-K (reporting date: 2020-01-31).
1 NOPAT. See details »
2 Cash operating taxes. See details »
3 2025 Calculation
CTR = 100 × Cash operating taxes ÷ NOPBT
= 100 × 34 ÷ 894 = 3.78%
4 Click competitor name to see calculations.
| Tax rate | Description | The company |
|---|---|---|
| CTR | Effective cash tax rate on operating income. | Workday Inc. CTR decreased from 2023 to 2024 but then slightly increased from 2024 to 2025. |