Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) shares gapped up prior to trading on Monday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $300.00 to $330.00. The stock had previously closed at $266.42, but opened at $291.60. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Workday shares last traded at $285.88, with a volume of 3,669,237 shares.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on WDAY. Loop Capital decreased their price objective on Workday from $270.00 to $242.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Workday in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Workday from $315.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Workday from $310.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Workday from $275.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Workday presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $289.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Richard Harry Sauer sold 3,134 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $235.78, for a total value of $738,934.52. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 85,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,228,745.10. This represents a 3.52 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 70,003 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $251.20, for a total value of $17,584,753.60. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 102,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,872,846.40. This trade represents a 40.46 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 361,463 shares of company stock worth $88,422,088. Corporate insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Workday

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. ORG Partners LLC increased its stake in Workday by 3,717.9% in the second quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 3,207 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $721,000 after purchasing an additional 3,123 shares during the period. Grafton Street Partners Fund LP bought a new position in shares of Workday in the third quarter worth about $4,424,000. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd increased its stake in Workday by 32.4% in the 3rd quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 31,878 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,791,000 after buying an additional 7,802 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Workday by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,719,976 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $384,518,000 after buying an additional 118,180 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc grew its stake in Workday by 19.3% in the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 44,324 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $10,833,000 after acquiring an additional 7,175 shares in the last quarter. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Workday Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $251.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $237.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.05 and a current ratio of 2.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.42, a P/E/G ratio of 4.91 and a beta of 1.34.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The software maker reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.13. Workday had a return on equity of 6.13% and a net margin of 19.86%. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.13 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.47 EPS. Workday’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Workday, Inc. will post 2.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Workday Company Profile

Workday, Inc provides enterprise cloud applications in the United States and internationally. Its applications help its customers to plan, execute, analyze, and extend to other applications and environments to manage their business and operations. The company offers a suite of financial management applications to maintain accounting information in the general ledger; manage financial processes, such as payables and receivables; identify real-time financial, operational, and management insights; enhance financial consolidation; reduce time-to-close; promote internal control and auditability; and achieve consistency across finance operations.