Dayforce, Inc. (NYSE:DAY) (TSX:DAY), a global leader in human capital management (“HCM”) technology, today announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2024.
“2024 was a year of outstanding progress and innovation for Dayforce. We launched the Dayforce brand, maintained our product positioning as leaders in HCM, and drove significant innovation to help our customers achieve their best work,” said David Ossip, Chair and CEO of Dayforce. “We are optimistic about 2025 as current and prospective customers continue to recognize the value the Dayforce platform provides as they streamline HCM processes and navigate compliance complexities.”
“The fourth quarter of 2024 was the strongest sales quarter in our history – helping us close out a successful year with robust growth across both new business and add-on sales,” said Stephen Holdridge, President and COO of Dayforce. “We saw a healthy mix of enterprise, major-market, and global sales on top of annual gross retention rate of 98% – another company record. This momentum, alongside the strength of our sales pipeline, gives us great confidence in our right to continue winning in 2025.”
“Looking out to 2025, we plan to continue executing on the vision laid out during our November investor day, operating the business for optimal cash generation while maintaining our pace of innovation and high levels of customer success,” said Jeremy Johnson, CFO of Dayforce. “I’m pleased that we are starting the year with demonstrable progress toward our profitability goals, raising our 2025 Adjusted EBITDA guidance 100 basis points to 32%.”
Financial Highlights for the Fourth Quarter 20241
- Total revenue was $465.2 million, an increase of 16.4%, or 17.0% on a constant currency basis.
- Dayforce recurring revenue was $347.9 million, an increase of 19.1%, or 19.5% on a constant currency basis. Excluding float revenue, Dayforce recurring revenue was $307.6 million, an increase of 20.0%, or 20.4% on a constant currency basis.
- Cloud recurring gross margin was 80.0%, compared to 77.0%, an increase of 3.0 percentage points. Adjusted Cloud recurring gross margin was 80.4%, compared to 78.1%, an increase of 2.3 percentage points.
- Operating profit was $28.5 million, compared to $38.8 million. Adjusted operating profit was $103.3 million, compared to $78.9 million.
- Net income was $10.8 million, compared to $45.6 million. Adjusted net income was $97.1 million, compared to $80.3 million.
- Adjusted EBITDA was $129.2 million, compared to $99.2 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 27.8%, compared to 24.8%, an increase of 3.0 percentage points.
- Diluted net income per share was $0.07, compared to $0.29. Adjusted diluted net income per share was $0.60, compared to $0.50.
Financial Highlights for the Full Year 20241
- Total revenue was $1,760.0 million, an increase of 16.3%, or 16.7% on a constant currency basis.
- Dayforce recurring revenue was $1,339.9 million, an increase of 20.6%, or 20.8% on a constant currency basis. Excluding float revenue, Dayforce recurring revenue was $1,159.7 million, an increase of 20.4%, or 20.7% on a constant currency basis.
- Cloud annualized recurring revenue (“ARR”) was $1,474.1 million, an increase of 17.9%, or $223.5 million.2
- Cloud recurring gross margin was 78.9%, compared to 77.0%, an increase of 1.9 percentage points. Adjusted Cloud recurring gross margin was 79.8%, compared to 78.3%, an increase of 1.5 percentage points.
- Operating profit was $104.1 million, compared to $133.1 million. Adjusted operating profit was $410.5 million, compared to $339.8 million.
- Annual Dayforce gross revenue retention rate was 98.0% for the full year of 2024, compared to 97.1%.2
- Net income was $18.1 million, compared to $54.8 million. Adjusted net income was $315.8 million, compared to $238.7 million.
- Adjusted EBITDA was $501.5 million, compared to $410.2 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 28.5%, compared to 27.1%, an increase of 1.4 percentage points.
- Diluted net income per share was $0.11, compared to $0.35. Adjusted diluted net income per share was $1.97, compared to $1.51.
- Net cash provided by operating activities was $281.1 million, compared to $219.5 million.
- Free cash flow was $171.5 million, compared to $105.1 million. Free cash flow margin was 9.7%, compared to 6.9%, an increase of 2.8 percentage points.
- Cash and equivalents were $579.7 million, compared to $570.3 million.
Supplemental Detail
- 7.62 million global employees were live on the Dayforce platform as of December 31, 2024, up 11.4% compared to 6.84 million global employees as of December 31, 2023.3
- 6,876 customers were live on the Dayforce platform as of December 31, 2024, an increase of 146 customers since September 30, 2024 and an increase of 483 customers since December 31, 2023, or 7.6% year-over-year.3
- Dayforce recurring revenue per customer was $163,101 for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2024, an increase of 11.1%.4
- The average float balance for Dayforce’s customer funds during the quarter was $4.68 billion and the average yield on Dayforce’s float balance was 3.8%, a decrease of 10 basis points year-over-year. Float revenue from invested customer funds was $45.1 million for the three months ended December 31, 2024.
- The average U.S. dollar to Canadian dollar foreign exchange rate was $1.40 for the three months ended December 31, 2024, compared to $1.36 for the three months ended December 31, 2023. Dayforce presents percentage change in revenue on a constant currency basis in order to exclude the effect of foreign currency rate fluctuations, which it believes is useful to management and investors. Percentage change in revenue was calculated on a constant currency basis by applying the average foreign exchange rate in effect during the comparable prior period.
1 The financial highlights are on a year-over-year basis, unless otherwise stated. All financial results are reported in United States (“U.S.”) dollars and in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. (“GAAP”), unless otherwise stated.
2 Excluding Ascender and eloomi.
3 Excluding Ascender, ADAM HCM, and eloomi.
4 Excluding float revenue, Ascender, ADAM HCM, and eloomi revenue, and on a constant currency basis. Please refer to the “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” section for discussion of percentage change in revenue on a constant currency basis.
Business Highlights
- The Company launched its first mass advertising campaign across the U.S. after uniting its global brand as Dayforce.
- Dayforce announced the launch of the Dayforce Partner Network to create growth opportunities and provide an exceptional experience for customers.
- Dayforce was named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape – Worldwide Cloud-Enabled Human Capital Management 2024 Vendor Assessment and a Leader in the Nucleus Research Full Suite Talent Acquisition Technology Value Matrix 2024.
- Dayforce won the gold medal and was named a Leader in Software Reviews Data Quadrant Awards for both HCM Enterprise Software and WFM Enterprise Software and was recognized by Constellation Research for excellence in Workforce Management Suites, HCM Suites with a North American Focus, Global HCM Suites, and Payroll for North American SMBs.
- For the second consecutive year, Dayforce was named by Newsweek magazine and the Best Practice Institute as one of the Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces in America, made Computerworld’s list of Best Places to Work in IT, and earned a place on the United Kingdom’s (“U.K.”) Most Loved Workplace list.
- Dayforce achieved record attendance at Dayforce Discover 2024, its annual customer conference in Las Vegas, where it welcomed its global community of customers, prospective customers, partners, and industry disruptors.
Sales Highlights
- A large member-owned retail cooperative selected the full Dayforce suite to support all 66,000 employees at 362 stores across nine states in the U.S.
- A large global manufacturer and distributor of paints and coatings supporting 60,000 employees has expanded its partnership with Dayforce Payroll and Workforce Management for its regions beyond the U.S.
- A global air services provider with over 48,000 employees across 35 countries has expanded its partnership with Dayforce to its U.S. operations. The company, which employs 3,200 in the U.S., has purchased the full suite of Dayforce products, including Managed Payroll.
- A space exploration company selected Dayforce Payroll and Time and Attendance to support its 18,000 employees.
- A global manufacturer of construction equipment selected Dayforce for Managed Payroll and Time and Attendance, supporting 6,500 employees and 500 pensioners globally.
- A large Indigenous organization in the U.S. selected the full Dayforce suite to support 5,000 employees across Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado.
- A specialty food distributor with 5,000 employees across the U.S. and Canada has expanded its Dayforce partnership to include Advanced Experience Hub, Succession Planning, Co-Pilot, Career Explorer, Engagement, and Talent Acquisition Management.
- A global beverage company has expanded its partnership with Dayforce choosing Time and Managed Payroll, to support 3,100 employees across the United States and Canada.
- A global leader specializing in radiation detection, measurement, and monitoring solutions opted for the full Dayforce HCM suite to support its 3,000 employees globally.
Customer Highlights
- A global aviation services provider with over 55,000 employees across 36 countries has successfully gone live with Dayforce HR and Payroll for 8,000 employees in the U.K. and plans to continue its global rollout of the platform.
- A leading American entertainment company with 23,000 employees successfully launched Dayforce Talent – Performance, Learning, Compensation, and Succession Planning – across its U.S. operations.
- A leading U.K. contract catering and support services provider successfully implemented Dayforce HR and Payroll for its 10,500 employees.
- A large public sector organization in North Carolina has gone live with Dayforce HR, Payroll, Benefits, Time, and People Analytics to support 8,000 employees.
- A U.S gaming and digital entertainment company has successfully gone live with Dayforce HR, Payroll, Time and People Analytics, supporting 5,800 employees across the U.S. and Canada.
- A global cybersecurity company has gone live with Dayforce HR, Payroll, and Time and Attendance, supporting 2,900 employees across the U.S.
- A leading U.S. based commercial real estate company has successfully implemented Dayforce, using HR, Managed Payroll, Managed Benefits, Time and Talent to support its 2,650 employees.
Product Roadmap Highlights
In the fourth quarter, Dayforce continued to set a new standard for the HCM industry by bringing product capabilities to market to help organizations invest in their people and push their businesses forward.
- 900+ compliance updates in 2024 further strengthen the company’s industry-leading position in compliance by addressing taxes, workers’ compensation, garnishments, dependent care, and multiple state and city rate changes.
- New intelligence capabilities across the Dayforce suite will help customers simplify and accelerate business processes including:
- Dayforce Co-Pilot, made generally available to all customers in Q4, optimizes people operations by enabling a more informed, empowered, and productive workforce through a powerful GenAI assistant that is personalized to answer contextual questions, summarize data, and provide step-by-step guidance.
- Dayforce Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) Agents, announced at Dayforce Discover, will help customers accelerate workflows, efficiencies, and decision-making by automating repetitive tasks across the employee lifecycle.
- AI-enhanced Dayforce Demand Forecasting, a new capability, better predicts demand and labor needs by delivering AI-enhanced insights through machine learning algorithms to help organizations plan more effectively.
- Dayforce Workforce Insights, a new feature, provides critical workforce insights and serves as a one-stop shop for people leaders.
- Dayforce Shift Marketplace supercharges staffing mobility by enabling workers to search for, select, and fill open shifts, right from their mobile device. Shift Marketplace provides workers with the up-front information required to understand their role, work, and compensation.
- Dayforce Talent enhancements elevate the experience for talent acquisition professionals by enabling them to hire at scale, reduce complexities in recruitment, and view qualified candidates quickly and efficiently.
- Dayforce Wallet updates include new direct-to-bank functionality with the option to continue to access available pay using Dayforce Wallet or to choose to send pay directly to another personal bank account and expanded access to on-demand pay using Dayforce Mobile.
Business Outlook
Based on information available as of February 5, 2025, Dayforce is issuing the following guidance for the full year and first quarter of 2025 as indicated below. Comparisons are on a year-over-year basis, unless stated otherwise.
First Quarter 2025 Guidance
- Total revenue, excluding float, of $421 million to $427 million, an increase of approximately 13.5% to 15% on a GAAP basis, or approximately 15.5% to 17% on a constant currency basis.
- Float revenue of $53 million.
- Adjusted EBITDA margin of 31% to 32%.
Full Year 2025 Guidance
- Total revenue, excluding float, of $1,745 million to $1,760 million, an increase of approximately 11.9% to 12.8% on a GAAP basis, or approximately 14% to 15% on a constant currency basis.
- Dayforce recurring revenue, excluding float, of $1,315 million to $1,340 million, an increase of approximately 13.4% to 15.5% on a GAAP basis, or approximately 15% to 17% on a constant currency basis.
- Float revenue of $180 million.
- Adjusted EBITDA margin of 32%.
- Free cash flow margin of 12%.
Please refer to the “Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures” section for a reconciliation of Dayforce’s free cash flow margin guidance. Dayforce has not reconciled the Adjusted EBITDA margin ranges for the first quarter or full year of 2025 to the directly comparable GAAP financial measures because applicable information for the future period, on which these reconciliations would be based, is not available without unreasonable efforts due to uncertainty regarding, and the potential variability of, depreciation and amortization, share-based compensation expense and related employer taxes, changes in foreign currency exchange rates, and other items.