Is Appian a buy after its latest earnings report? Appian's AI momentum accelerated in the third quarter. By Jeremy Bowman - Nov 5, 2026 at 7:30PM EST Key points. * Appian beat estimates on top and bottom lines in the third quarter. * The company now expects adjusted earnings per share to double this year. * Appian's AI platform is rapidly gaining traction, with AI usage up 50% sequentially. * 10 stocks The Motley Fool, LLC like better than Appian" Appian (APPN +8.45%) came into its third-quarter earnings report in the midst of its strongest rally since the pandemic, up more than 150% from its lows this year. The process automation software specialist has seen its growth and profitability ramp up in the AI era as the company has incorporated AI across its software platform, and Appian AI, its AI-powered app-building software, is seeing explosive growth. Customer AI usage jumped 50% sequentially in the third quarter, showing its base of government and enterprise customers are finding value in the company's AI tools. For example, Appian AI helped customers conduct audits three times faster, perform underwriting reviews 75% faster, and run investment processes with 34% greater efficiency. As a result of its AI growth, overall revenue jumped 25% to 234.6 million, well ahead of the consensus at $217 million. Revenue growth benefited in part from a surge in on-premises revenue, driven by the busiest quarter in the public sector. Cloud subscription revenue, which Appian generally considers its core focus, was up 20% in the quarter to $136.4 million, and total subscription revenue was up 28% to $187.8 million. On the bottom line, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rose from $32.2 million to $43.4 million, and adjusted earnings per share jumped from $0.32 to $0.51, well ahead of the consensus at $0.33. Appian's guidance called for its momentum to continue into the fourth quarter with cloud subscription revenue guidance of $143 million-$145 million, representing 22%-24% growth, and total revenue guidance of $233 million-$237 million, representing growth of 15%-17%. On the bottom line, it sees adjusted earnings per share of $0.30-$0.34, up from $0.15 in the quarter a year ago. For the full year, adjusted earnings per share are expected to double to $1.20-$1.24. Anthropic's revenue grew 12X last year. 2 ways to invest before it lists. Somebody is going to make a fortune on Anthropic's IPO. It probably won't be regular investors waiting for the day it goes public. Unless investors know where to look. Because two companies anyone can buy today already own pieces of Anthropic. And one of them owns a piece of OpenAI, too. Appian stock was trading up 4% Thursday afternoon after jumping nearly 20% in the premarket session, though the rout in the broader stock market erased some of those gains. Appian's secret sauce. Only a few years ago, Appian was struggling in the post-pandemic era, and as recently as 2024, the company was losing money on an EBITDA basis. However, Appian has reinvented itself, streamlining its sales force and reorganizing its go-to-market strategy to be more efficient, and those efforts paid off in improved profitability. In the AI era, the company also sees itself as having established a competitive advantage through its years of work with process automation before AI and its established trust with organizations like government agencies and multinational banks, which have mission-critical applications and prioritize reliability. APPN - Appian. $54.03 +$4.21 (+8.45%) NASDAQ · As of 4:00 PM ET 11/05/26 APPN · 1Y +34.10% Key data points. Market cap $3.87B Day's range $51.27 - $56.38 52wk range $18.63 - $56.38 Avg volume 945K Gross margin 71.35% Speaking in an interview with The Motley Fool, Appian CEO Matt Calkins commented that its competition has actually decreased in the AI era because the company is now competing at a higher tier. He explained, saying, "The name of the game is reliability because we're talking at the top of the organization and above all they want AI connected to their most important work in a reliable way." Calkins also said that Appian had done a good job of predicting the evolution of the process automation market, saying that AI had changed the market it's competing in, and added, "I think we've done a number of things right in the last few years, but what I think in retrospect we've done is to see the obvious a little bit in advance." Above all, Appian is meeting the moment by providing a comprehensive platform built on its data fabric, a top-rated orchestration layer, governance protocols to ensure safety, and an efficiency layer that ensures tokens are used in a cost-effective manner. On the earnings call, CFO Serge Tanjga said, "We all show up here for work knowing that we should be a much bigger company in a few years," showing strong confidence in the business's direction. Appian has the momentum, and AI is providing a massive opportunity. The company expects margins to continue to expand as it grows, meaning 2027 should be another year of strong profit growth. Given that, Appian stock looks like a good bet to keep moving higher. Should you buy stock in Appian right now? Before you buy stock in Appian, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now... and Appian wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of its recommendation, you'd have $358,037!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of its recommendation, you'd have $1,229,708!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 897% - a market-crushing outperformance compared to 211% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors. *Stock Advisor returns as of November 6, 2026.

The proof is in the customers: driving measurable results with Hyperproof. Every GRC vendor claims their platform delivers results. However, buyers struggle to distinguish real outcomes from a marketing message, and self-reported vendor claims carry little weight in an internal business case. Buyers are looking for specific proof from trusted peers. Look beyond the claims for the proof. With Hyperproof, the proof is in its customers. "The most intuitive, flexible platform" The Challenge: Acuity International's lean compliance team was spending nearly 4,000 hours a year manually managing controls across complex frameworks like FedRAMP, FISMA, SOC 2(R), and CMMC. Relying on spreadsheets and SharePoint led to version control issues, tedious document gathering, and a lack of real-time visibility for leadership. The Solution: Acuity centralized its GRC operations in Hyperproof, implementing automated evidence collection and using Scopes to segment controls by system and program. They leveraged Jumpstart crosswalking to map and reuse controls across frameworks, integrated custom fields in the risk register to replace Excel-based POA&M tracking, and connected control health directly to risk severity. The Results: The team reduced audit prep time by over 70% and slashed System Security Plan (SSP) creation time from 30 hours to just three. With real-time dashboards delivering enhanced visibility, Acuity transformed compliance into a business enabler to win high-value government contracts. "It used to take me 300 hours to prepare for an audit, but I've cut that time down by over 70%. I don't need to spend hours chasing down evidence anymore!" "Ready for an audit at any given moment" The Challenge: Managing compliance for over 28 frameworks, 600 controls, and 21 audits across thousands of regulated customers was overwhelming Appian's security team. Disjointed tracking led to manual evidence collection, duplicated controls for engineers, and heavy administrative upkeep. The Solution: Appian selected Hyperproof to consolidate their security and GRC programs into a single source of truth. They implemented automated evidence collectors, leveraged Jumpstarts to crosswalk controls across frameworks, and tailored control management views across product lines, business units, and engineering teams. The Results: Appian saved hours on evidence collection by shifting from manual gathering to continuous control monitoring. The team reclaimed valuable time to focus on strategic security initiatives and built a scalable GRC foundation that allows them to quickly enter new regional markets without increasing compliance overhead. "We've gone from manually pulling evidence of controls to having those controls continuously documented. Hyperproof has saved hours of our time." "Saved so much time and energy" The Challenge: Operating with a lean team of four, OutSystems was trapped in a continuous, year-round audit cycle. Managing separate audits across different firms meant constant context switching and redundant artifact collection - leaving no time for strategic risk initiatives. The Solution: OutSystems deployed Hyperproof as their central GRC platform. They cross-mapped control frameworks, reused evidence across multiple standards (SOC 2(R), ISO 27001, and PCI DSS), and consolidated 12 disjointed audits into a single integrated audit sprint with one audit firm. The Results: OutSystems saved over nine months of audit time across their multi-framework compliance portfolio. Beyond the operational efficiency, the team eliminated internal disruption and earned company-wide recognition for transforming compliance from a bottleneck into a strategic business partner. "The ability to reuse evidence across multiple frameworks saved so much time and energy. Stakeholders were thrilled about how much time they saved." See the proof for yourself. Hyperproof is the intelligent GRC platform that helps you streamline compliance operations, mitigate risks, and build trust with customers and stakeholders in one centralized platform. Its customers consistently report positive results: increases in compliance productivity and stakeholder visibility, alongside reductions in evidence collection time and control orchestration costs. See the proof for yourself. Request a personalized demo to see how organizations like yours are getting measurable results across their GRC operations. Related resources.

Appian Corp. reported third-quarter net income of $12.3 million, or 17 cents per share, on revenue of $234.6 million. The McLean, Virginia-based business process management software provider said adjusted earnings were 51 cents per share, beating the 32 cents analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research expected. For the fourth quarter ending in December, Appian expects earnings of 30 to 34 cents per share and revenue of $233 million to $237 million. For the full year, it expects earnings of $1.20 to $1.24 per share and revenue of $873 million to $877 million. Appian shares have risen 41% since the start of the year and 72% over the past 12 months.