Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at TD Cowen

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) was downgraded by investment analysts at TD Cowen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Wednesday. They presently have a $155.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock. TD Cowen’s target price suggests a potential upside of 19.02% from the stock’s current price.

WDAY has been the subject of several other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Workday from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $325.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Monday. Evercore cut Workday from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday. KeyCorp reduced their target price on Workday from $285.00 to $260.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $175.00 price target on Workday in a report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $195.00 price objective on Workday in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and sixteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $233.16.

Workday Price Performance

WDAY stock opened at $130.23 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $184.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $213.51. Workday has a 52-week low of $125.83 and a 52-week high of $281.00. The company has a market capitalization of $34.25 billion, a PE ratio of 54.72, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.83, a current ratio of 1.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The software maker reported $2.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.32 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. Workday had a net margin of 6.95% and a return on equity of 10.50%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.92 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Workday will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Workday

In other Workday news, insider Gerrit S. Kazmaier sold 3,759 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.73, for a total value of $784,616.07. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 105,167 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,951,507.91. This represents a 3.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 953 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $209.56, for a total value of $199,710.68. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 35,336 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,405,012.16. This represents a 2.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 370,321 shares of company stock worth $78,866,401 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Workday by 840.9% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 765,049 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $164,317,000 after purchasing an additional 683,741 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in Workday in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,518,000. Compound Planning Inc. grew its position in Workday by 32.8% in the 4th quarter. Compound Planning Inc. now owns 2,818 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $605,000 after buying an additional 696 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Workday by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,552,061 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $548,132,000 after buying an additional 166,564 shares during the period. Finally, Rare Wolf Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Workday during the 4th quarter worth about $215,000. 89.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Trending Headlines about Workday

Here are the key news stories impacting Workday this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 beats — Workday reported better?than?expected fiscal Q4 results: revenue and EPS topped consensus and subscription revenue grew year?over?year, underpinned by strong cash flow. Workday Q4 results press release
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst buy thesis remains for some — Needham reaffirmed a Buy and kept a $300 price target, arguing AI investments offer long?term upside despite near?term headwinds. Needham buy rating
• Neutral Sentiment: Leadership/AI strategy — Workday has emphasized agentic AI as a growth driver and recently brought back a founder CEO, a strategic pivot that could help execution but adds uncertainty about near?term priorities. CEO return and AI focus
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader software sell?off — The pullback in software names and macro uncertainty amplified the reaction to Workday’s guidance, meaning market moves reflect sector trends as well as company specifics. Software sector pressure
• Negative Sentiment: Guidance miss — Management forecast FY?2027 subscription revenue below Street estimates (and guided for slower subscription growth), signaling weaker new?client wins as corporate tech spend moderates. Revenue guidance below estimates
• Negative Sentiment: Margins and AI investment cost — Workday warned of margin pressure as it accelerates AI investments and guidance for adjusted operating income was cautious, pressuring investor sentiment about near?term profitability. Margin outlook and AI costs
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst reactions — Several brokers pared targets or downgraded WDAY (Jefferies, Mizuho among them); JPMorgan lowered its target too, increasing near?term selling pressure. Jefferies cut Mizuho downgrade (summary) JPM price?target move (summary)

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.