Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Shares Up 4.9% – What’s Next?

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY)’s stock price shot up 4.9% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $144.87 and last traded at $144.7470. 1,242,878 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 76% from the average daily volume of 5,155,302 shares. The stock had previously closed at $137.99.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WDAY has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Workday in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Workday in a report on Friday, May 22nd. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Workday in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Workday in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Workday in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Workday presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $184.00.

Workday Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day moving average price is $127.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $149.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.31 billion, a PE ratio of 44.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.11.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Workday news, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 107,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.04, for a total value of $13,119,300.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 105,049 shares in the company, valued at $12,820,179.96. This represents a 50.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 1,585 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.05, for a total value of $179,184.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 31,467 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,557,344.35. The trade was a 4.80% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 754,085 shares of company stock worth $94,845,834 in the last quarter. 18.64% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Workday

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WDAY. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Workday by 14.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,009,288 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $5,371,495,000 after buying an additional 3,210,232 shares in the last quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its position in Workday by 25,412.8% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 10,230,616 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,197,332,000 after acquiring an additional 10,190,516 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Workday by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,770,707 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,098,552,000 after acquiring an additional 96,139 shares during the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC raised its position in Workday by 47.5% during the third quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,842,491 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,406,463,000 after purchasing an additional 1,882,391 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Workday by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,091,926 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,089,970,000 after purchasing an additional 75,922 shares in the last quarter. 89.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.