By Adam Clark

UiPath stock was falling early Thursday after its fourth-quarter earnings. A forecast of slower revenue growth in its current fiscal year punctured hopes the automation-software company will emerge as a winner from the growth of artificial intelligence.

UiPath shares were down 6.9% at $11.53 in early trading. The stock has fallen 31% over the past three months as optimism around its previous earnings report was overtaken by concern about AI hitting the software sector more generally.

UiPath reported adjusted earnings of 30 cents a share, on revenue of $481.1 million, beating expectations. The problem was its guidance. The company expects fiscal 2027 revenue of between $1.75 billion and $1.76 billion, which would represent an increase of around 9% at the high end. That compares with 13% growth for fiscal 2026.

In the current fear-driven software market, a slowdown in growth isn't what investors want to hear, even as UiPath insists AI will increase demand for its robotic process automation (RPA) technology, designed to automate repetitive information tasks.

UBS analyst Radi Sultan lowered his target price on the stock to $13 from $17 and kept a Neutral rating, noting the company doesn't appear to be accelerating its growth in annual recurring revenue, after stripping out currency effects and acquisitions.

"We've heard an uptick of AI tailwinds unlocking more automatable workflows and a pickup in core RPA/automation demand, but we are still uncertain if this is enough to drive a meaningful growth acceleration for UiPath," Sultan wrote in a research note.

UiPath is at the sharp end of the AI debate, with a forward price-to-earnings ratio looking cheap at just over 15 times, according to FactSet. That's in line with other hard-hit software peers such as Salesforce. UiPath's company's executives appear to see a bargain, with the board authorizing a $500 million share-buyback program on Wednesday.

However, being a smaller player in the industry against rivals such as Microsoft and ServiceNow could mean investors treat it as a riskier play.

"We maintain a Perform rating on UiPath because of slowing growth and concerns that intensifying competition in the agentic era from the mega IT and LLM [large language model] suppliers will weaken the moat. Also, UiPath's growth is less inspiring than software peers," wrote Oppenheimer analyst Brian Schwartz in a research note.

Schwartz doesn't have a price target on the stock.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

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March 12, 2026 10:09 ET (14:09 GMT)

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