Workiva Inc. (WK) DCF Valuation & Fundamental Primer
Workiva Inc. (WK) currently trades at $86.25 with an enterprise value of $2.42B. Our proprietary institutional model rates Workiva Inc. at 61/100 (Grade: B · Mixed Fundamental Profile). The current market price prices in an implied 5-year revenue CAGR of 42.6% vs. historical growth of 20.4% (Aggressive Growth Expectations Priced In).
Institutional fundamental teardown of Workiva Inc. (WK) covering SEC 10-K/10-Q cash flow conversion, SBC dilution friction, and Reverse-DCF valuation hurdles.
Workiva Inc. (WK) 3-Scenario DCF Valuation Range
Stress-test WK's 5-year growth, target FCF margin, WACC, terminal methodology, and SBC/dilution friction in real time.
Split between 5-Year Explicit Cash Flows and Discounted Terminal Value
2D Institutional Valuation Sensitivity Heatmap
Implied share price & upside/downside spread across 25 valuation states (Current Price: $86.25).
| WACC \ Terminal | 1.5% | 2.0% | 2.5% | 3.0% | 3.5% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8.5% | $39.72 -54% | $42.81 -50% | $46.42 -46% | $50.68 -41% | $55.79 -35% |
| 9.3% | $34.70 -60% | $37.14 -57% | $39.93 -54% | $43.18 -50% | $46.98 -46% |
| 10.0% | $30.58 -65% | $32.54 -62% | $34.75 -60% | $37.29 -57% | $40.21 -53% |
| 10.8% | $27.13 -69% | $28.73 -67% | $30.53 -65% | $32.55 -62% | $34.86 -60% |
| 11.5% | $24.21 -72% | $25.54 -70% | $27.01 -69% | $28.66 -67% | $30.51 -65% |
Institutional Software Quality Scorecard (61/100 · Grade B)
Viable recurring software business but carries notable dilution, lower margins, or higher leverage.
Positive FCF but lower conversion efficiency due to capex or timing
Standard software SBC dilution; modest equity transfer to employees
High-quality software margins with healthy balanced growth and profitability
Moderate leverage or cash burn; monitor liquidity runway
Core Investment Strengths & Moats
- Healthy unit economics: 76.7% gross margin
Key Operational & Dilution Risks
Reverse-DCF Solver: What Growth is Priced Into WK?
The current share price demands 42.6% 5-year CAGR (66.6% net of SBC & dilution)—a +22.2% acceleration over historical run-rate (20.4%). Any growth slowdown risks valuation multiple contraction.
Headline Reverse-DCF ignores Stock-Based Compensation (13.8% of revenue) and annual share dilution (1.7%/yr). Accounting for both requires 66.6% 5-year revenue CAGR to justify $86.25/sh on a true per-share economic cash flow basis.
Workiva Inc. (WK) 5-Year Fundamental Forecast
| Statement Line Item | TTM Audited Base | TTM | Y1 | Y2 | Y3 | Y4 | Y5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $738.7M | $738.7M | $889.3M | $1.07B | $1.29B | $1.55B | $1.87B |
| Gross Profit | $566.6M | $566.6M | $682.2M | $821.3M | $988.7M | $1.19B | $1.43B |
| Operating Income (EBIT) | $-76.5M | $-76.5M | $-92.1M | $-110.9M | $-133.5M | $-160.8M | $-193.5M |
| Stock-Based Compensation (SBC) | $102.2M | $102.2M | $123.0M | $148.1M | $178.3M | $214.6M | $258.4M |
| Unlevered Free Cash Flow (FCF) | $86.2M | $86.1M | $103.7M | $124.8M | $150.3M | $180.9M | $217.8M |
| SBC-Adjusted True Cash Flow | $-16.0M | $-16.0M | $-19.3M | $-23.2M | $-28.0M | $-33.7M | $-40.5M |
Software & Cloud Services Peer Comparables & Rule of 40 Regression
Rule of 40 vs. EV / Revenue Multiple Regression
OLS Fit: EV/Rev = -11.9 + 0.47 × (Rule of 40) · R² = 60%Stocks below the gold regression line trade at a discount relative to their Rule of 40 compounding efficiency.
| Company | Ticker | Market Cap | TTM Revenue | Gross Margin | FCF Margin | Rule of 40 | SBC % Rev | EV / Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workiva Inc. | WK | $4.84B | $738.7M | 76.7% | 11.7% | 32.1% | 13.8% | 7.2× |
| ServiceNow | NOW | $152.61B | $10.98B | 79.2% | 31.1% | 54.2% | 15.9% | 13.9× |
| Workday, Inc. | WDAY | $50.35B | $8.00B | 75.0% | 27.4% | 43.9% | 19.0% | 6.4× |
| Salesforce | CRM | $217.10B | $37.90B | 77.2% | 32.8% | 42.8% | 8.4% | 5.8× |
| Datadog | DDOG | $46.05B | $2.68B | 80.8% | 31.1% | 57.7% | 21.3% | 17.4× |
| Snowflake Inc. | SNOW | $71.79B | $3.63B | 66.5% | 25.2% | 57.7% | 40.8% | 20.0× |
| Hubspot | HUBS | $19.89B | $2.63B | 85.0% | 21.3% | 52.7% | 19.2% | 7.7× |
| Peer Cohort Median Benchmark (N=6) | 78.2% | 29.2% | 53.5% | 19.1% | 10.8× | |||
EV / Revenue Multiple Compression Stress Test
| Multiple Scenario | EV / Revenue | Implied Enterprise Value | Implied Equity Value | Implied Share Price | Delta vs Current |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current Multiple | 7.2× | $5.32B | $4.84B | $86.25 | 0.0% |
| -20% Multiple Compression | 5.8× | $4.25B | $3.78B | $67.30 | -20.0% |
| -35% Multiple Compression | 4.7× | $3.46B | $2.98B | $53.09 | -35.0% |
| Software Baseline Floor (5.0× EV/Rev) | 5.0× | $3.69B | $3.22B | $57.33 | -30.5% |
Frequently Asked Questions: Workiva Inc. (WK) Valuation
What is Workiva Inc. (WK)'s intrinsic DCF valuation and implied share price?
Based on audited SEC 10-K/10-Q filings and a 5-year 3-statement discounted cash flow (DCF) model, Workiva Inc. (WK) has a Base Case implied value of $34.59 per share (with a Bear Case of $9.99 and a Bull Case of $68.94), compared to its current price of $86.25. The model discounts projected free cash flows at a 10.0% WACC and a 2.5% terminal growth rate.
What is Workiva Inc. (WK)'s Rule of 40 score and Free Cash Flow margin?
Workiva Inc. achieves a Rule of 40 score of 32.1%, combining a 20.4% revenue growth run-rate with a 11.7% TTM free cash flow margin on $738.7M in trailing twelve-month revenue. In the Software & Cloud Services peer cohort, the median Rule of 40 benchmark is 53.5%.
What revenue growth rate is priced into WK stock according to Reverse-DCF analysis?
At $86.25 per share (Enterprise Value of $5.32B), our Reverse-DCF solver indicates the market is pricing in a 5-year implied revenue CAGR of 42.6%, compared to Workiva Inc.'s historical CAGR of 20.4%. Overall market expectations are rated as "Aggressive Growth Expectations Priced In".
How does Workiva Inc. compare to Software & Cloud Services software peers?
Workiva Inc. (WK) earns an institutional Software Quality Score of 61/100 (Grade B — Mixed Fundamental Profile). Across its Software & Cloud Services peer group (NOW, WDAY, CRM, DDOG, SNOW), the cohort trades at a median EV/TTM Revenue multiple of 10.8× and a median gross margin of 78.2%.
How does Stock-Based Compensation (SBC) impact Workiva Inc. (WK)'s valuation?
Workiva Inc. recorded $102.2M in TTM stock-based compensation (13.8% of revenue). When treating SBC as a cash-equivalent compensation expense, Workiva Inc.'s SBC-adjusted free cash flow yield is -0.3%, scoring 16/25 on our Shareholder Dilution Friction pillar.
