Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday after StockNews.com downgraded the stock from a buy rating to a hold rating. The stock had previously closed at $270.19, but opened at $237.50. Workday shares last traded at $251.01, with a volume of 7,090,630 shares.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on WDAY. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price target on shares of Workday in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. DA Davidson boosted their price target on shares of Workday from $255.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Barclays reduced their target price on Workday from $314.00 to $305.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Workday from $310.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and set a $270.00 price target (down from $285.00) on shares of Workday in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $288.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director George J. Still, Jr. sold 7,500 shares of Workday stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.45, for a total value of $1,915,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 90,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,990,500. The trade was a 7.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 56,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.01, for a total transaction of $13,552,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 281,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $68,004,810. This trade represents a 16.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 359,954 shares of company stock worth $88,742,132 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of WDAY. ORG Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Workday by 3,717.9% in the 2nd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 3,207 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $721,000 after buying an additional 3,123 shares during the period. Grafton Street Partners Fund LP purchased a new position in Workday in the third quarter worth approximately $4,424,000. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd grew its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position 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 holdings in shares of Workday by 19.3% in the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 44,324 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $10,833,000 after purchasing an additional 7,175 shares in the last quarter. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Workday Price Performance

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 stock’s fifty day moving average price is $248.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $237.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 1.35.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.13 billion. Workday had a return on equity of 6.21% and a net margin of 19.86%. Workday’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.47 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Workday, Inc. will post 2.4 EPS for the current 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.