Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on WDAY. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Workday from $315.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. DA Davidson boosted their price target on Workday from $255.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Workday from $260.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. JMP Securities reissued a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 price target on shares of Workday in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on Workday from $275.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $288.14.

Workday Stock Performance

NASDAQ WDAY opened at $249.99 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The business’s 50 day moving average is $248.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $237.39. Workday has a 12-month low of $199.81 and a 12-month high of $311.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $66.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.46, a PEG ratio of 5.03 and a beta of 1.35.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The software maker reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.13. Workday had a return on equity of 6.21% and a net margin of 19.86%. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.47 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Workday will post 2.4 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Workday

In related news, Director Wayne A.I. Frederick sold 1,828 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.85, for a total value of $442,101.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,097,806.90. This represents a 17.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 66,492 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $261.20, for a total value of $17,367,710.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 102,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,902,816.40. This represents a 39.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 359,954 shares of company stock worth $88,742,132 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Workday

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDAY. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Workday by 79.1% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,302,008 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $514,637,000 after purchasing an additional 1,016,394 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in Workday by 17,345.2% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 930,701 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $208,068,000 after buying an additional 925,366 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its position in Workday by 1,094.2% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 613,800 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $150,019,000 after buying an additional 562,400 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in Workday by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,985,131 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,218,415,000 after buying an additional 480,459 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI purchased a new position in Workday in the 3rd quarter valued at about $78,003,000. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.