Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Upgraded to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Tuesday morning.

WDAY has been the topic of several other reports. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating and set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Workday in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Workday from $280.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Workday from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Workday from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Workday in a report on Friday, September 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $291.36.

Workday Trading Up 1.4 %

NASDAQ:WDAY opened at $269.04 on Tuesday. Workday has a 12 month low of $199.81 and a 12 month high of $311.28. 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 firm’s 50 day moving average is $257.46 and its 200 day moving average is $241.65. 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 issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The software maker reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.13 billion. Workday had a return on equity of 6.13% and a net margin of 19.86%. The business’s revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.47 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Workday will post 2.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Wayne A.I. Frederick sold 1,828 shares of Workday stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $241.85, for a total value of $442,101.80. Following the transaction, the director now owns 8,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,097,806.90. The trade was a 17.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 56,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.96, for a total value of $13,605,760.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 393,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $95,483,280. This represents a 12.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 305,463 shares of company stock worth $76,261,968. 20.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Workday

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDAY. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its position in Workday by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 17,068 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $3,816,000 after purchasing an additional 373 shares during the last quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management boosted its holdings in Workday by 7.8% in the second quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 2,482 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $555,000 after acquiring an additional 179 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. increased its position in Workday by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 2,347 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $525,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the period. Burney Co. raised its holdings in Workday by 56.3% in the 2nd quarter. Burney Co. now owns 6,990 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,563,000 after purchasing an additional 2,519 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Workday in the 2nd quarter worth about $57,000. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.