Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Earns Buy Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by stock analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $300.00 target price on the software maker’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 20.25% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Workday in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Workday from $300.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Workday from $300.00 to $314.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Workday from $310.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Workday from $287.00 to $270.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Workday has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $300.36.

Workday Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:WDAY opened at $249.49 on Monday. Workday has a 52-week low of $199.81 and a 52-week high of $294.00. The company has a market cap of $66.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.37, a P/E/G ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 1.38. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $256.76 and its 200-day moving average is $255.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 2.05 and a current ratio of 2.05.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The software maker reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by ($1.27). Workday had a return on equity of 6.13% and a net margin of 19.86%. The firm had revenue of $2.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.18 billion. Equities research analysts predict that Workday will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Carl M. Eschenbach sold 6,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $253.86, for a total value of $1,586,625.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 13,972 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,546,931.92. This represents a 30.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 56,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $261.75, for a total transaction of $14,658,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 172,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,021,000. This trade represents a 24.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 417,001 shares of company stock valued at $105,735,200 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Workday

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Workday by 28.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,142,800 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $5,197,447,000 after acquiring an additional 4,517,272 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Workday during the fourth quarter worth approximately $658,735,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Workday during the fourth quarter worth approximately $645,710,000. Parnassus Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Workday by 562.2% during the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 2,447,735 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $631,589,000 after purchasing an additional 2,078,097 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Workday by 61.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,637,387 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,193,105,000 after purchasing an additional 1,772,223 shares during the period. 89.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.