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

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY)’s share price gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday after KeyCorp lowered their price target on the stock from $285.00 to $260.00. The stock had previously closed at $233.69, but opened at $215.34. KeyCorp currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Workday shares last traded at $214.08, with a volume of 1,530,850 shares changing hands.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on WDAY. Raymond James Financial assumed coverage on shares of Workday in a research report on Friday. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Bank of America decreased their target price on Workday from $295.00 to $278.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Zacks Research lowered Workday from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Workday from $295.00 to $290.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Finally, Piper Sandler raised Workday from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $220.00 to $235.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.17.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Workday news, CFO Zane Rowe sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $232.62, for a total transaction of $1,395,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 168,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,189,026.16. This trade represents a 3.44% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Michael M. Mcnamara sold 5,393 shares of Workday stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $235.16, for a total transaction of $1,268,217.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 24,078 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,662,182.48. This trade represents a 18.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 264,933 shares of company stock worth $61,475,760 over the last quarter. 20.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Workday

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Workday in the second quarter worth $25,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC bought a new stake in Workday in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. JPL Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Workday in the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Dagco Inc. purchased a new position in Workday in the 1st quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, Berbice Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Workday by 136.4% during the 2nd quarter. Berbice Capital Management LLC now owns 130 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the period. 89.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Workday Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day moving average price is $234.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $236.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 2.10 and a current ratio of 2.10. The stock has a market cap of $56.52 billion, a PE ratio of 98.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.11.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 25th. The software maker reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.17 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $2.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.42 billion. Workday had a net margin of 6.51% and a return on equity of 9.74%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Workday, Inc. will post 2.63 EPS for the current fiscal 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.