Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) shares gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday after Loop Capital lowered their price target on the stock from $270.00 to $242.00. The stock had previously closed at $270.19, but opened at $237.50. Loop Capital currently has a hold rating on the stock. Workday shares last traded at $251.01, with a volume of 7,090,630 shares trading hands.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. Bank of America lowered their target price on Workday from $310.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Workday from $274.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Workday in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Workday in a research report on Monday, November 18th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $340.00 price target for the company. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on Workday from $314.00 to $305.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $288.14.

Insider Activity at Workday

In related news, insider Richard Harry Sauer sold 3,134 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $235.78, for a total transaction of $738,934.52. Following the sale, the insider now owns 85,795 shares in the company, valued at $20,228,745.10. This represents a 3.52 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 66,492 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $261.20, for a total value of $17,367,710.40. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 102,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,902,816.40. This represents a 39.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 359,954 shares of company stock worth $88,742,132 over the last three months. Company insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Workday

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Workday by 21.3% in the 3rd quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 2,280 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $557,000 after acquiring an additional 401 shares in the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp increased its stake in Workday by 5.7% in the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 19,590 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $4,788,000 after purchasing an additional 1,051 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Workday by 43.8% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 13,546 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,311,000 after purchasing an additional 4,128 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of Workday during the third quarter valued at about $4,893,000. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Workday by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 29,633 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,934,000 after purchasing an additional 1,978 shares in the last quarter. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Workday Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $67.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.15, a P/E/G ratio of 5.31 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $248.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $237.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a current ratio of 2.04.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The software maker reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.13. Workday had a return on equity of 5.34% and a net margin of 19.59%. The firm had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.47 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Workday, Inc. will post 2.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.