Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Saturday morning.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Morgan Stanley lowered Workday from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $185.00 to $145.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. HC Wainwright set a $140.00 target price on shares of Workday in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Workday from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Summit Redstone set a $275.00 target price on shares of Workday in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, CLSA assumed coverage on shares of Workday in a research note on Monday, July 20th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $92.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Workday presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.80.

Workday Stock Performance

WDAY opened at $179.64 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $140.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $139.20. Workday has a 1 year low of $110.36 and a 1 year high of $249.85. The stock has a market cap of $44.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 21st. The software maker reported $2.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.51 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. Workday had a net margin of 8.60% and a return on equity of 14.75%. The firm’s revenue was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.23 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Workday will post 5.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Zane Rowe sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.70, for a total value of $862,200.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 288,460 shares in the company, valued at approximately $41,451,702. The trade was a 2.04% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 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, insider Robert Enslin sold 5,374 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.90, for a total transaction of $724,952.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 239,469 shares in the company, valued at $32,304,368.10. The trade was a 2.19% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 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. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 875,020 shares of company stock worth $113,938,503. 18.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Workday

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in WDAY. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its stake in shares of Workday by 25,412.8% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 10,230,616 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,197,332,000 after buying an additional 10,190,516 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Workday by 14.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,009,288 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $5,371,495,000 after acquiring an additional 3,210,232 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in Workday by 101.4% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,017,905 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,077,537,000 after purchasing an additional 2,525,821 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Workday during the fourth quarter worth about $448,804,000. Finally, First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Workday by 87.8% in the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 4,338,773 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $931,882,000 after purchasing an additional 2,028,085 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

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.