Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) Shares Up 8.8% – Should You Buy?

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ:WDAY)’s stock price rose 8.8% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $145.83 and last traded at $147.2260. Approximately 1,029,373 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 80% from the average session volume of 5,055,062 shares. The stock had previously closed at $135.34.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $175.00 target price on shares of Workday in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Workday in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Summit Redstone set a $275.00 price target on Workday in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. HC Wainwright set a $140.00 price objective on Workday in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt raised shares of Workday from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $150.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Workday currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.80.

Workday Trading Up 9.1%

The stock has a market capitalization of $36.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The company has a fifty day moving average of $133.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $141.37.

Workday (NASDAQ:WDAY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 21st. The software maker reported $2.66 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.51 by $0.15. Workday had a return on equity of 14.75% and a net margin of 8.60%.The company had revenue of $2.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.23 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Workday, Inc. will post 5.38 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Workday

In other Workday news, insider Robert Enslin sold 5,374 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Sunday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.90, for a total transaction of $724,952.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 239,469 shares in the company, valued at $32,304,368.10. This represents a 2.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, major shareholder David A. Duffield sold 107,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $122.04, for a total value of $13,119,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 105,049 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,820,179.96. This represents a 50.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 875,020 shares of company stock worth $113,938,503. 18.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Workday

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WDAY. Annex Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Workday in the second quarter valued at approximately $591,000. Tema ETFs LLC increased its position in Workday by 34.9% during the second quarter. Tema ETFs LLC now owns 4,515 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $553,000 after acquiring an additional 1,167 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its stake in Workday by 57.4% during the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 126,296 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $15,461,000 after purchasing an additional 46,051 shares during the last quarter. Sapient Capital LLC acquired a new position in Workday during the 2nd quarter valued at $13,045,000. Finally, Fluent Financial LLC bought a new stake in Workday in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,249,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.81% 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.