Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Takes $3.23 Million Position in Workday, Inc. $WDAY

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in shares of Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 24,900 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $3,235,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Auto Owners Insurance Co increased its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 10,190,516 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Workday by 14.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,009,288 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $5,371,495,000 after buying an additional 3,210,232 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in Workday by 101.4% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 5,017,905 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,077,537,000 after buying an additional 2,525,821 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Workday in the 3rd quarter worth about $556,252,000. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Workday in the 4th quarter worth about $448,804,000. 89.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Workday

Here are the key news stories impacting Workday this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Investors appear to be re-rating Workday after its latest quarterly results showed solid revenue growth, stronger-than-expected earnings, and an increased full-year operating margin outlook, reinforcing confidence in the company’s execution and demand trends.
• Positive Sentiment: Workday’s AI and data-platform efforts are helping sentiment, including its AWS Data Cloud integration and broader AI product push, which may support future growth as enterprises spend more on AI-enabled software.
• Positive Sentiment: A market rotation into software has also lifted shares, with investors favoring names like Workday over semiconductors in the latest move across the market.
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street sentiment has improved, highlighted by Monness Crespi & Hardt upgrading Workday to buy with a $150 price target, adding to a generally constructive analyst backdrop.
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent insider selling by major shareholder David Duffield was disclosed under a pre-arranged trading plan, which may limit its significance for day-to-day trading but is still something investors may watch.
• Negative Sentiment: Workday continues to face a lawsuit tied to alleged AI bias in job-screening tools, creating a legal overhang that could temper enthusiasm if the case escalates.

Insider Buying and Selling at Workday

In related news, CFO Zane Rowe sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $128.22, for a total transaction of $769,320.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 217,930 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,942,984.60. This trade represents a 2.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through 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 Workday stock in a transaction on Monday, June 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.25, for a total transaction of $12,281,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 105,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,001,848.25. The trade was a 50.58% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 774,814 shares of company stock valued at $99,846,591. 18.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WDAY. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Workday in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. Citigroup restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Workday in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. Summit Redstone set a $275.00 target price on shares of Workday in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. DA Davidson set a $135.00 price target on shares of Workday in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Workday in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $140.00 price target on the stock. One 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $184.00.

Workday Price Performance

Shares of Workday stock opened at $124.21 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.68 billion, a PE ratio of 38.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.09. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $127.46 and its 200-day moving average price is $153.11. Workday, Inc. has a 12 month low of $110.36 and a 12 month high of $249.85.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last released 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. The company had revenue of $2.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. Workday had a return on equity of 14.75% and a net margin of 8.60%.Workday’s quarterly revenue was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.23 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Workday, Inc. will post 5.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Workday

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.