Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) shares gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday after Loop Capital lowered their price target on the stock from $270.00 to $242.00. The stock had previously closed at $270.19, but opened at $237.50. Loop Capital currently has a hold rating on the stock. Workday shares last traded at $251.01, with a volume of 7,090,630 shares.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Workday in a research report on Monday, November 18th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $340.00 target price for the company. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Workday from $310.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Workday from $325.00 to $315.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Workday from $300.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Workday in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Workday currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $288.14.

Insider Transactions at Workday

In related news, Director George J. Still, Jr. sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.45, for a total value of $1,915,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 90,000 shares in the company, valued at $22,990,500. This represents a 7.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 56,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.01, for a total transaction of $13,552,560.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 281,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $68,004,810. This represents a 16.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 359,954 shares of company stock worth $88,742,132. Insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Workday

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WDAY. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in Workday by 79.1% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,302,008 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $514,637,000 after acquiring an additional 1,016,394 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in Workday by 17,345.2% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 930,701 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $208,068,000 after buying an additional 925,366 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its stake in Workday by 1,094.2% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 613,800 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $150,019,000 after buying an additional 562,400 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in Workday by 10.7% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,985,131 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $1,218,415,000 after buying an additional 480,459 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI purchased a new stake in Workday during the third quarter valued at about $78,003,000. 89.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Workday Stock Down 7.1 %

The company has a quick ratio of 2.04, a current ratio of 2.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The company has a market capitalization of $66.52 billion, a PE ratio of 47.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.31 and a beta of 1.35. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $248.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $237.21.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The software maker reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.13. Workday had a net margin of 19.59% and a return on equity of 5.34%. The company had revenue of $2.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.47 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Workday, Inc. will post 2.4 EPS for the current year.

Workday Company Profile

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.