Despite a loss, Workday beats Q2 expectations with strong outlook

Workday published much better-than-expected second quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday.

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The enterprise software provider reported a net income of $69.2 million, or 38 cents per share (statement).

On a non-GAAP basis, the loss rang up at 11 cents per share on a revenue of $186.8 million, up 74 percent annually.

Wall Street was expecting a loss of 14 cents per share on a revenue of $177.45 million. In response, Workday shares started to climb in after-hours trading.

Subscription revenues were $143.7 million, an uptick of 77 percent from same period last year.

Highlighting customer and subscription growth outside the United States especially, CEO Aneel Bhusri reflected on the quarter in prepared remarks:

As we execute on the second half of our fiscal year, we see significant momentum as customers continue to make the switch to the cloud for their HR and finance applications, and we remain tightly focused on delivering rapid product innovation with high levels of customer satisfaction to help them transform their businesses for the future.

For the current quarter, Wall Street is expecting Workday's loss to remain constant at 14 cents a share while churning $195.58 million in revenue.

CFO Mark Peek promised a "strong second half of fiscal 2015," offering Q3 revenue guidance of $200 million to $205 million, translating to growth of 56 to 60 percent year-over-year.