Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Raised to “Buy” at StockNews.com

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Monday.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the company. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 target price on shares of Workday in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Loop Capital decreased their price objective on Workday from $270.00 to $242.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Workday in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Workday in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Workday in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $291.36.

Workday Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ:WDAY opened at $252.84 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $261.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $244.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.04 and a beta of 1.34. Workday has a 1-year low of $199.81 and a 1-year high of $311.28. The company has a quick ratio of 2.05, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last announced its earnings results 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 net margin of 19.86% and a return on equity of 6.13%. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.13 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.47 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Workday will post 2.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 56,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.01, for a total transaction of $13,552,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 281,000 shares in the company, valued at $68,004,810. This represents a 16.62 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Wayne A.I. Frederick sold 1,828 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $241.85, for a total transaction of $442,101.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 8,674 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,097,806.90. This trade represents a 17.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 305,463 shares of company stock valued at $78,927,008. Insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Workday

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDAY. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in shares of Workday by 79.1% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,302,008 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $514,637,000 after purchasing an additional 1,016,394 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its holdings in Workday by 1,094.2% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 613,800 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $150,019,000 after buying an additional 562,400 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of Workday by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,985,131 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,218,415,000 after buying an additional 480,459 shares in the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI acquired a new position in shares of Workday in the 3rd quarter valued at $78,003,000. Finally, D1 Capital Partners L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Workday by 152.1% during the 2nd quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. now owns 518,000 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $115,804,000 after acquiring an additional 312,500 shares during the period. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.