Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.04 EPS

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) released its earnings results on Thursday. The company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.04, FiscalAI reports. The firm had revenue of $202.87 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $189.33 million. The business’s revenue was up 21.7% on a year-over-year basis. Appian updated its FY 2026 guidance to 0.820-0.960 EPS and its Q1 2026 guidance to 0.160-0.200 EPS.

Here are the key takeaways from Appian’s conference call:

• Appian says AI usage on its platform grew 14x year‑over‑year and is monetizing that demand — customers are upgrading to an Appian AI license (average ~25% price increase) and multiple seven‑figure deals were driven by AI features like Doc Center.
• Financials and cash generation improved — Q4 revenue was $202.9M (+22% YoY), full‑year adjusted EBITDA margin reached 11% with $63M of operating cash flow, and the company announced a $50M stock buyback.
• Enterprise and public‑sector traction strengthened — customers with >$1M ARR rose 50% to 140, and the U.S. Army awarded Appian a $500M enterprise license agreement over 10 years.
• 2026 guidance calls for cloud subscription revenue of $502–510M (~16% YoY at midpoint), total revenue of $801–817M (~11% YoY), and adjusted EBITDA of $89–99M (~12% margin), while the company plans modest reinvestment in sales and engineering.
• Margin and mix headwinds and reporting changes — non‑GAAP gross margin declined to 73% (from 77% a year ago), professional services gross margin fell, Q4 operating cash was just $1.1M, and the company reclassified expenses and changed customer definitions which may affect comparability.

Appian Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of Appian stock traded up $0.12 on Thursday, reaching $24.18. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,587,091 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,174,994. Appian has a 52 week low of $21.77 and a 52 week high of $46.06. The company has a market capitalization of $1.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -241.49 and a beta of 0.90. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.43.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Appian

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State of Wyoming boosted its holdings in Appian by 55.0% in the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 1,462 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 519 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of Appian by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 37,730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,153,000 after buying an additional 632 shares during the period. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Appian in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of Appian by 693.4% in the third quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 968 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 846 shares during the period. Finally, Kestra Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Appian during the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Institutional investors own 52.70% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Appian

Here are the key news stories impacting Appian this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results beat expectations — Appian reported $0.15 EPS (vs. Zacks $0.09 / consensus ~$0.11) and revenue of $202.9M, a 21.7% YoY increase. This fundamental beat is the main positive catalyst. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Company raised guidance — Appian issued Q1 FY2026 EPS guidance of $0.160–0.200 (above consensus) and FY2026 EPS guidance of $0.820–0.960 (well above street). Revenue guidance was also raised vs. consensus — a material forward-looking bullish signal. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Subscription growth supports recurring revenue — Q4 cloud subscriptions revenue rose 18% YoY to $117.0M and full‑year cloud subscriptions were up 19% to $437.4M, strengthening the recurring revenue story. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Company provided conference call and investor materials — management hosted a call and published a slide deck for details; useful for digging into margin drivers and customer metrics but neutral until specifics move consensus. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Pre-earnings coverage and outlook commentary circulated (MSN, Benzinga, Zacks previews) — background reading available but not new drivers vs. results. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Street still shows caution — average sell‑side forecasts previously implied a negative EPS for the current fiscal year (consensus ~‑0.28 prior to updated guidance), indicating some analysts may take time to revise models upward; lingering skepticism could limit sustained rallies.
• Negative Sentiment: Technical/valuation headwinds — the stock remains below its 50- and 200-day moving averages and is well off its 1-year high; short‑term profit taking or rotation into other names may keep upward momentum in check.
• Neutral Sentiment: Short interest data reported appears anomalous and provides no clear signal to explain intraday moves (reported values show zeros/NaN).

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Zacks Research cut shares of Appian from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Appian from $37.00 to $34.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 12th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Appian from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. DA Davidson started coverage on Appian in a research report on Friday, November 7th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $38.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Appian in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.40.

About Appian

Appian Corporation is a global technology company specializing in low-code automation platforms designed to streamline business processes. Founded in 1999 by Matt Calkins, the company provides an integrated suite of tools that enables organizations to build enterprise applications and workflows rapidly with minimal hand coding. The platform combines process management, robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and data integration into a single environment, allowing businesses to accelerate digital transformation initiatives.

The core offering, the Appian Low-Code Platform, empowers users—ranging from professional developers to business analysts—to visually model, design and deploy applications that can automate complex operations, orchestrate tasks across systems, and deliver real-time analytics.