Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Shares Gap Up – Still a Buy?

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) shares gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $122.40, but opened at $129.09. Workday shares last traded at $123.37, with a volume of 1,374,170 shares trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WDAY has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus set a $175.00 target price on shares of Workday in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Workday from $275.00 to $210.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their target price on shares of Workday from $265.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Workday from $238.00 to $206.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $200.00 target price on shares of Workday in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Nineteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.71.

Workday Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a current ratio of 1.32. The company has a market capitalization of $32.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 1.14. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $130.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $180.74.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The software maker reported $2.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.32 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. Workday had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 13.37%. Workday’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.92 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Workday, Inc. will post 5.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Robert Enslin sold 5,373 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.41, for a total value of $695,319.93. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 165,414 shares in the company, valued at $21,406,225.74. The trade was a 3.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Zane Rowe sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $128.22, for a total transaction of $769,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 217,930 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,942,984.60. This trade represents a 2.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 989,814 shares of company stock worth $131,576,291 in the last 90 days. 19.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Workday

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in WDAY. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Workday by 230.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 4,005 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,033,000 after buying an additional 2,792 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its holdings in shares of Workday by 12.1% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 11,142 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,602,000 after buying an additional 1,206 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Workday by 211.7% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 187 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Workday in the 2nd quarter worth about $281,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Workday by 32.0% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 6,597 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,583,000 after buying an additional 1,600 shares during the last quarter. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Workday Company Profile

Workday, Inc (NASDAQ: WDAY) is a provider of cloud-based enterprise applications focused on human capital management (HCM) and financial management. Founded in 2005 by Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri following their tenure at PeopleSoft, the company develops software-as-a-service solutions that help organizations manage workforce and financial processes in a unified, cloud-native environment. Workday’s platform emphasizes continuous updates, data security, and a configurable architecture aimed at large and mid-sized enterprises.

The company’s product portfolio centers on Workday Human Capital Management and Workday Financial Management, with additional offerings for payroll, talent management, workforce planning and analytics.