Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Upgraded at StockNews.com

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) was upgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Workday in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Bank of America cut their price target on Workday from $310.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. JMP Securities reiterated a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 price target on shares of Workday in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Canaccord Genuity Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Workday in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Workday from $274.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $291.36.

Workday Stock Up 1.4 %

NASDAQ:WDAY traded up $3.65 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $269.04. 850,470 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,452,973. The business has a 50-day moving average of $257.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $241.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.05 and a current ratio of 2.05. Workday has a 12-month low of $199.81 and a 12-month high of $311.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $71.56 billion, a PE ratio of 44.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.04 and a beta of 1.34.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The software maker reported $1.89 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.47 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Workday will post 2.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Workday

In other news, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 57,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.31, for a total value of $15,692,670.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 284,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $78,188,040. This represents a 16.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Richard Harry Sauer sold 3,134 shares of Workday stock in a transaction on 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 305,463 shares of company stock valued at $76,261,968 over the last quarter. 20.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDAY. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Workday by 7.2% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 29,633 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $7,934,000 after buying an additional 1,978 shares during the last quarter. Grafton Street Partners Fund LP purchased a new stake in Workday during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $4,424,000. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd lifted its position in Workday by 32.4% during the 3rd quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 31,878 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $7,791,000 after acquiring an additional 7,802 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Workday by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,719,976 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $384,518,000 after purchasing an additional 118,180 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc raised its stake in shares of Workday by 19.3% during the third quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 44,324 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $10,833,000 after purchasing an additional 7,175 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

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.