Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty-one brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty have issued a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $296.25.

Several brokerages have commented on WDAY. Daiwa America raised shares of Workday to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of Workday from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Workday from $270.00 to $310.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Citigroup decreased their target price on Workday from $287.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, DA Davidson dropped their price target on Workday from $270.00 to $230.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th.

Insider Transactions at Workday

In other Workday news, insider Sayan Chakraborty sold 6,056 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.50, for a total transaction of $1,607,868.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 111,324 shares in the company, valued at $29,556,522. This trade represents a 5.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 81,275 shares of Workday stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $214.68, for a total transaction of $17,448,117.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 102,997 shares in the company, valued at $22,111,395.96. This trade represents a 44.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 321,724 shares of company stock valued at $77,976,126. Insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Workday

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Workday by 28.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,142,800 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $5,197,447,000 after buying an additional 4,517,272 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Workday in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $658,735,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Workday during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $645,710,000. Parnassus Investments LLC raised its holdings in Workday by 562.2% during the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 2,447,735 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $631,589,000 after buying an additional 2,078,097 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Workday by 61.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,637,387 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,193,105,000 after buying an additional 1,772,223 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.81% of the company’s stock.

Workday Stock Performance

Shares of WDAY opened at $221.02 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $244.00 and a 200 day moving average of $252.18. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Workday has a 12 month low of $199.81 and a 12 month high of $294.00. The company has a market capitalization of $58.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.65, a PEG ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.32.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The software maker reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.75 by ($1.27). The business had revenue of $2.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.18 billion. Workday had a net margin of 19.86% and a return on equity of 6.13%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Workday will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current year.

About Workday

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.