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

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Monday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $300.00 to $330.00. The stock had previously closed at $266.42, but opened at $291.60. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Workday shares last traded at $285.88, with a volume of 3,669,237 shares trading hands.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Workday in a report on Friday, September 13th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Workday from $314.00 to $305.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Workday in a report on Monday, November 25th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Workday from $274.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $270.00 price target (down previously from $285.00) on shares of Workday in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $289.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Richard Harry Sauer sold 3,134 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $235.78, for a total value of $738,934.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 85,795 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,228,745.10. This trade represents a 3.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 70,003 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $251.20, for a total transaction of $17,584,753.60. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 102,997 shares in the company, valued at $25,872,846.40. This trade represents a 40.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 361,463 shares of company stock worth $88,422,088. Corporate insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Workday by 5.7% during the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,265 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,401,000 after purchasing an additional 339 shares during the period. Bank Pictet & Cie Asia Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Workday during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $391,000. Diversified Trust Co increased its holdings in shares of Workday by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 4,830 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,080,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC raised its stake in Workday by 12.4% in the 2nd quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 2,590 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $579,000 after acquiring an additional 285 shares during the period. Finally, Deltec Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Workday during the 2nd quarter valued at $872,000. Institutional investors own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

Workday Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $74.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.15, a PEG ratio of 4.91 and a beta of 1.34. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $250.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $237.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 2.05.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The software maker reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.13 billion. Workday had a net margin of 19.86% and a return on equity of 6.13%. Workday’s revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.47 EPS. Research analysts expect that Workday, Inc. will post 2.58 EPS for the current fiscal 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.