Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-eight research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $292.25.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on WDAY shares. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Workday from $280.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Workday from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Scotiabank started coverage on Workday in a report on Monday, November 18th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $340.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Workday from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Workday from $315.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th.

Insider Activity at Workday

In other news, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 57,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.31, for a total transaction of $15,692,670.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 284,000 shares in the company, valued at $78,188,040. This trade represents a 16.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 472 shares of Workday stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The stock was 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 438,819 shares of company stock valued at $113,142,592. Corporate insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Workday

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of WDAY. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Workday by 42.8% in the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 12,275 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,744,000 after purchasing an additional 3,679 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Workday by 373.9% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 27,538 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $6,152,000 after purchasing an additional 21,727 shares during the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Workday by 39.0% during the second quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 2,660 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $595,000 after buying an additional 746 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Workday during the second quarter valued at approximately $65,000. Finally, Wedbush Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Workday by 18.4% in the second quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 2,390 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $534,000 after buying an additional 371 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

Workday Stock Performance

WDAY stock opened at $248.57 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $262.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $246.44. 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 market capitalization of $66.12 billion, a PE ratio of 41.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.51 and a beta of 1.34.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The software maker reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.13. Workday had a return on equity of 6.13% and a net margin of 19.86%. The firm had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.47 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Workday will post 2.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Workday Company Profile

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.