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

Shares of Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday after Scotiabank raised their price target on the stock from $340.00 to $355.00. The stock had previously closed at $255.22, but opened at $279.99. Scotiabank currently has a sector outperform rating on the stock. Workday shares last traded at $273.01, with a volume of 2,207,231 shares traded.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Workday in a report on Wednesday. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of Workday in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Workday from $320.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Workday from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $265.00 to $300.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered Workday from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $330.00 to $275.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $302.14.

Insider Buying and Selling at Workday

In other news, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 70,003 shares of Workday stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $251.20, for a total value of $17,584,753.60. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 102,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,872,846.40. The trade was a 40.46 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 472 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.24, for a total value of $117,169.28. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 35,408 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,789,681.92. This trade represents a 1.32 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 433,321 shares of company stock valued at $111,763,803. 20.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Workday

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in WDAY. Crews Bank & Trust purchased a new position in Workday during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Workday during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. Avion Wealth boosted its holdings in shares of Workday by 452.6% during the 4th quarter. Avion Wealth now owns 105 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the period. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of Workday during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Finally, TCTC Holdings LLC bought a new stake in shares of Workday during the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

Workday Trading Down 3.9 %

The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The company’s fifty day moving average is $259.89 and its 200-day moving average is $254.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $69.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.21, a P/E/G ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.35.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The software maker reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.75 by ($1.27). The company had revenue of $2.21 billion for 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Workday, Inc. will post 2.63 earnings per share 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.