Retirement Systems of Alabama Acquires 199,006 Shares of Workday, Inc. $WDAY

Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its stake in Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY) by 431.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 245,083 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 199,006 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned approximately 0.09% of Workday worth $52,639,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Workday by 3.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,799,056 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $5,247,687,000 after purchasing an additional 684,872 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Workday by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,674,568 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $2,328,959,000 after buying an additional 74,052 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Workday by 47.5% in the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 5,842,491 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,406,463,000 after acquiring an additional 1,882,391 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its holdings in shares of Workday by 41.5% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 3,761,599 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $905,530,000 after acquiring an additional 1,103,421 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Workday by 13.1% during the 3rd quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 3,217,205 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $774,478,000 after acquiring an additional 371,561 shares in the last quarter. 89.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird set a $195.00 price target on shares of Workday in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $175.00 price objective on shares of Workday in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Loop Capital set a $210.00 target price on shares of Workday in a report on Thursday, March 12th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Workday from $204.00 to $182.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered Workday from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $325.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Workday has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.71.

Workday Price Performance

Workday stock opened at $128.77 on Tuesday. Workday, Inc. has a 12-month low of $117.76 and a 12-month high of $276.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $149.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $198.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.09 billion, a PE ratio of 49.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.17.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 24th. The software maker reported $2.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.32 by $0.15. Workday had a net margin of 7.26% and a return on equity of 13.37%. The company had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.92 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Workday, Inc. will post 2.63 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 953 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $209.56, for a total transaction of $199,710.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 35,336 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,405,012.16. This trade represents a 2.63% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Richard Harry Sauer sold 1,130 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.00, for a total value of $237,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 85,398 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,933,580. The trade was a 1.31% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 765,036 shares of company stock valued at $113,952,492. Corporate insiders own 20.00% of the company’s stock.

Workday Company Profile

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.