Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday after Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on the stock from $270.00 to $310.00. The stock had previously closed at $255.22, but opened at $279.99. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a hold rating on the stock. Workday shares last traded at $273.01, with a volume of 2,207,231 shares.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Workday from $330.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Workday in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Workday from $287.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Loop Capital upped their target price on shares of Workday from $242.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Workday to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $296.11.

Insider Buying and Selling at Workday

In related news, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 70,003 shares of Workday stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $251.20, for a total transaction of $17,584,753.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 102,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,872,846.40. The trade was a 40.46 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Sayan Chakraborty sold 5,498 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.78, for a total transaction of $1,378,788.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 121,100 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,369,458. This represents a 4.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 438,819 shares of company stock worth $113,142,592 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Workday

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Workday by 28.4% in the third quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,479 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $361,000 after acquiring an additional 327 shares during the period. Arkadios Wealth Advisors boosted its holdings in Workday by 47.8% in the 3rd quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 3,168 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $774,000 after purchasing an additional 1,025 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Workday by 1,265.6% in the 3rd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 44,081 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $10,774,000 after purchasing an additional 40,853 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its position in shares of Workday by 53.8% during the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 126,363 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $30,442,000 after purchasing an additional 44,217 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pallas Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Workday by 20.8% during the third quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,560 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,080,000 after purchasing an additional 786 shares during the period. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Workday Trading Up 7.0 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 2.05. The company has a market capitalization of $72.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.15, a P/E/G ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.35. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $259.97 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $254.12.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 25th. The software maker reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.75 by ($1.27). The company had revenue of $2.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Workday had a net margin of 19.86% and a return on equity of 6.13%. Research analysts predict that Workday, Inc. will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current 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.