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

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday.

WDAY has been the topic of several other reports. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Workday in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Workday from $314.00 to $305.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Scotiabank assumed coverage on Workday in a research note on Monday, November 18th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $340.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Workday from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Workday from $310.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Workday has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $291.36.

Workday Stock Performance

WDAY stock opened at $269.04 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $257.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $242.02. The company has a market capitalization of $71.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.62, a PEG ratio of 5.04 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a quick ratio of 2.05, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Workday has a fifty-two week low of $199.81 and a fifty-two week high of $311.28.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The software maker reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.13. Workday had a net margin of 19.86% and a return on equity of 6.13%. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.47 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Workday will post 2.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Workday news, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 57,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.31, for a total transaction of $15,692,670.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 284,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $78,188,040. This represents a 16.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Richard Harry Sauer sold 3,134 shares of Workday stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $235.78, for a total transaction of $738,934.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 85,795 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,228,745.10. This represents a 3.52 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 305,463 shares of company stock valued at $76,261,968 over the last three months. 20.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Workday

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WDAY. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Workday by 45.0% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 17,794 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,349,000 after purchasing an additional 5,519 shares during the period. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in Workday in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $15,663,000. Garde Capital Inc. increased its position in Workday by 60.6% in the 3rd quarter. Garde Capital Inc. now owns 3,120 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $763,000 after buying an additional 1,177 shares during the period. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Workday by 21.3% during the third quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 2,280 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $557,000 after buying an additional 401 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Workday by 5.7% in the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 19,590 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,788,000 after acquiring an additional 1,051 shares during the last quarter. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.