Sterling Capital Management LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Workday, Inc. $WDAY

Sterling Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) by 34.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,124 shares of the software maker’s stock after selling 4,806 shares during the period. Sterling Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Workday were worth $1,185,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Workday in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC purchased a new position in Workday during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. DT Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in Workday during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in Workday during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, JPL Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Workday in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. 89.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Summit Redstone set a $275.00 price target on Workday in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Workday from $155.00 to $158.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Workday from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Workday in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Workday to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $184.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Robert Enslin sold 5,373 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.41, for a total transaction of $695,319.93. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 165,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,406,225.74. This represents a 3.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 107,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $115.60, for a total value of $12,427,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 105,049 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,143,664.40. This trade represents a 50.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 774,814 shares of company stock valued at $98,324,391 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 18.64% of the company’s stock.

Workday Price Performance

Shares of WDAY opened at $123.58 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $127.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $151.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Workday, Inc. has a twelve month low of $110.36 and a twelve month high of $249.85. The company has a market cap of $30.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.09.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 21st. The software maker reported $2.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.51 by $0.15. Workday had a return on equity of 14.75% and a net margin of 8.60%.The business had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.23 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Workday, Inc. will post 5.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Workday Company Profile

Workday, Inc (NASDAQ: WDAY) is a provider of cloud-based enterprise applications focused on human capital management (HCM) and financial management. Founded in 2005 by Dave Duffield and Aneel Bhusri following their tenure at PeopleSoft, the company develops software-as-a-service solutions that help organizations manage workforce and financial processes in a unified, cloud-native environment. Workday’s platform emphasizes continuous updates, data security, and a configurable architecture aimed at large and mid-sized enterprises.

The company’s product portfolio centers on Workday Human Capital Management and Workday Financial Management, with additional offerings for payroll, talent management, workforce planning and analytics.