Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Lowered to “Equal Weight” Rating by Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report released on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $275.00 price target on the software maker’s stock, down from their previous price target of $330.00.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Mizuho increased their price objective on Workday from $280.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Workday from $300.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Workday from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Workday in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Workday in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Workday currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $291.11.

Workday Trading Down 1.7 %

NASDAQ WDAY opened at $261.10 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $69.45 billion, a PE ratio of 43.30, a PEG ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Workday has a 12 month low of $199.81 and a 12 month high of $311.28. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $261.36 and a 200-day moving average of $252.47.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The software maker reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.13 billion. Workday had a return on equity of 6.13% and a net margin of 19.86%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.47 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Workday will post 2.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Workday

In related news, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 70,090 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.53, for a total value of $17,840,007.70. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 102,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,215,826.41. This trade represents a 40.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 472 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.24, for a total value of $117,169.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 35,408 shares in the company, valued at $8,789,681.92. This trade represents a 1.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 438,819 shares of company stock valued at $113,142,592 over the last ninety days. 20.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Workday

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WDAY. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Workday during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Workday during the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Crews Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Workday during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Avion Wealth boosted its stake in shares of Workday by 452.6% during the fourth quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 105 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Workday by 42.2% during the third quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 145 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. 89.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Workday

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.